What are the influences for the high elves of warhammer?

[UserU]

I have a few idea and here they are

-Elric of Melnibone

-Near east aryan groups such as sarmassions, Sasanians, hittities, scthians. Its really obvious in the armor and clothing, along with having various named classes like the magus. The scale armor in conjunction with plate and a long gown in with a conically pointed helmet is one example, dragons on helmets, heavy use of dragon/phoenix symbols, scales, etc.

-Near east societies/orders likes the zoroastrian priest's, magus's, sufism(more jedi-esque though) etc. And of course, the asurian shrine looks like a cross between a pyramid and a mosque, almost like a jedi temple. I see various sorts of similar symbols from groups like rosicrucians for instance.

-Norman style, around the 10th to 13th century, of which, most of the style tends to come from one of the groups above.

-14th to 15th century german and british architecture, armor, and various clothing types, all along the gothic style in particular in armor andarchitecture.

-Moors anc christians festivals, and history, unparallel artistry and an obvious influence for both dark and high elves in general as this video will show : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kGLHlllX-TQ&t=1m55s

-The Safavid Dynasty, up to the Qajar dynasty in persia, obvious clothing, armor, artistry and architecture influences

-Tolkien, alot of this is all cut from the same tolkienesque cloth, and lets not forget the accents

-Last and not least, The Antedilvian world, because its the closest to immortalism as it gets that is tangible, such as atlantis, mu, etc.

These are just my idea's, what do you see? Obviously the tomb kings are egyptian, and the lizards are west hemisphere aboriginals for instance.

I am very curious as to where some of those shoulder armor pieces come from. I have seen various persian designs have them, around the 14th/15th century with the long gown and breast plate in a sort of asur style, but I do not recall.

Obviously I like everything about the high elves.

[Aenarion]

Originally posted by Matheoryon:

-Tolkien

/thread

[𝒦ℒℬ]

it's probably tolkien to answer this very dumb pointless thread. lol

[dt Walter Robinson]

" The Antedilvian world, because its the closest to immortalism as it gets that is tangible, such as atlantis, mu, etc."






You win Stupidest Post of the Day award.

Gratz.

[The Rogue Roman]

Originally posted by The Ayatollah of Rock n' Rollah:

" The Antedilvian world, because its the closest to immortalism as it gets that is tangible, such as atlantis, mu, etc."






You win Stupidest Post of the Day award.

Gratz.

Actually that prize goes to you.

The Warhammer world is obviously based on our world (you can see Europe, Africa, Asia, and North and South America) with Ulthuan right where Atlantis should be. So of course it's inspired by theories and myths and legends of antediluvian civilization.

Modern humans have existed on earth for up to 200000 years. If you seriously think everything interesting happened in the last 6000 years of recorded history, you need to expand your thinking.

[ihKu47]

I think you already went through all the inspirations that popped in my head, and then added a bunch too. Sadly, I've nothing to add but I do enjoy these kinds of threads, it's entertaining to look closely at entertainment

[𝒦ℒℬ]

Originally posted by ihKu47:

I think you already went through all the inspirations that popped in my head, and then added a bunch too. Sadly, I've nothing to add but I do enjoy these kinds of threads, it's entertaining to look closely at entertainment :2016popsicle:

why'd you comment then

[dt Walter Robinson]

Originally posted by Emperor Trump:

If you seriously think everything interesting happened in the last 6000 years of recorded history, you need to expand your thinking.

What you are saying and what you accuse me of are amusingly divergent in a way that obviously goes above your intellectual paygrade.

Atlantis and Mu are fictional, and making precise claims as to how HE are influenced by them requires more than just saying so.

What evidence do you have that HE are specifically influenced by these cultures?

Can you even cite one legitimate source that these claims are based on?


I didn't say that everything interesting happened in the last 6000 years, you did and then you ascribed that opinion to me.


That is just blunt intellectual dishonesty, and the specious reasoning is primary reason that I don't take jacka$$es on Steam forums too seriously.

[Rabidnid]

Given that the game was invented by 5 spotty 20 something, expecting anything more that stealing it from tolkien is ridiculous. Even the rules were stolen wholesale from the current ancient miniatures rules of the time.

[𝒦ℒℬ]

Originally posted by The Ayatollah of Rock n' Rollah:

Originally posted by Emperor Trump:

If you seriously think everything interesting happened in the last 6000 years of recorded history, you need to expand your thinking.

What you are saying and what you accuse me of are amusingly divergent in a way that obviously goes above your intellectual paygrade.

Atlantis and Mu are fictional, and making precise claims as to how HE are influenced by them requires more than just saying so.

What evidence do you have that HE are specifically influenced by these cultures?

Can you even cite one legitimate source that these claims are based on?


I didn't say that everything interesting happened in the last 6000 years, you did and then you ascribed that opinion to me.


That is just blunt intellectual dishonesty, and the specious reasoning is primary reason that I don't take jacka$$es on Steam forums too seriously.

u took the bait.

[dt Walter Robinson]

Originally posted by 𝔏𝔦𝔮𝔲𝔦𝔡:

u took the bait.

well, everything becomes bait when you're wrong, doesn't it?

[UserU]

Originally posted by Emperor Trump:

Originally posted by The Ayatollah of Rock n' Rollah:

" The Antedilvian world, because its the closest to immortalism as it gets that is tangible, such as atlantis, mu, etc."






You win Stupidest Post of the Day award.

Gratz.

Actually that prize goes to you.

The Warhammer world is obviously based on our world (you can see Europe, Africa, Asia, and North and South America) with Ulthuan right where Atlantis should be. So of course it's inspired by theories and myths and legends of antediluvian civilization.

Modern humans have existed on earth for up to 200000 years. If you seriously think everything interesting happened in the last 6000 years of recorded history, you need to expand your thinking.

Oh of course its alot longer then 6k, hell, one can argue we exist is a bad mmo lmao.

I have alot of respect and admiration for the concept of the asur, and though its not perfect, I indulge it often. I am especially interested in the similar concepts and such in real world as per the examples I have given.

[The Rogue Roman]

Originally posted by The Ayatollah of Rock n' Rollah:

What evidence do you have that HE are specifically influenced by these cultures?

Can you even cite one legitimate source that these claims are based on?

Atlantis, whether it existed or not, has been part of Western legend for thousands of years. When Europeans make up a story about an island in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean that is home to a lost advanced civilization, they are inspired by Atlantis. Ulthuan fits all these characteristics.

We don't need a notarized statement from the CEO of Games Workshop to prove the obvious. We can make deductions about the inspiration for Warhammer by looking at the lore itself.

Originally posted by The Ayatollah of Rock n' Rollah:

I didn't say that everything interesting happened in the last 6000 years, you did and then you ascribed that opinion to me.

I was indulging in rhetoric there. That's the mainstream view of historians today, most of whom deny the possibility of a lost civilization, and claim that humans were primitive hunter-gatherers until the beginning of agriculture ~10-12000 years ago, and that recorded history began ~6000 years ago.

[𝒦ℒℬ]

Originally posted by The Ayatollah of Rock n' Rollah:

Originally posted by 𝔏𝔦𝔮𝔲𝔦𝔡:

u took the bait.

well, everything becomes bait when you're wrong, doesn't it?

jebaited.

[Voxrox]

Its weird to write such a combination of words, but in regards to High Elves/Ulthuan is inspired from Atlantis, well - Trump is actually correct here...

[GrapplingHook!]

Great topic of discussion, to clarify however: the focus of OP is on 'real world influences on the visual aesthetic and cultural/religious character of the Asur in the Warhammer setting', so a lot of the above posts are kind of off topic IMO.

Given that this is lore that has been fleshed out of 30+ years with input from lots of different people, there's gonna be lots of different influences, pooling from literature (of course Tolkien) and real world cultural myths and past civilisations.

Aesthetics

There are a mix of influences on different units, buildings etc. Prominent among which are the Sythians as inspiration for lots of the helmets and scale armour (though of course the scale armour is much more historically ubiquitous so you could say it came from lots of places). I went to a Sythian exhibition at the British museum a while back and I remember there was this really tall helmet/headdress with an eagle (i think) on top, very reminiscent of the swordmasters/dragon princes helmets. Sythians also wore tall cloth caps which might be the inspiration for the ellyrian reavers caps.

Scale armour on the silver helms is reminiscent of scythian/persian/byzantine cataphracts.

Plate armour/cuirasses on various units is obv 15+ century western influence, with the fluted armour on the dragon princes and their horses looks 15c to me (albeit exaggerated for fantasy effect).

The puffy cloth clothing on the archers - not sure, turkish maybe? And then the rest of the units (sisters, shadow warriors) is just artistic licence me thinks.

Buildings - i'm thinking the influence of fantasy literature is the primary one here, Tolkien and all its derivatives. As for what those were based on historically, prob a variant on 19c imagined romantic past ( think of those 19c castes made to look like fantasy medieval castles).

Politics

Quite a clear Byzantine influence here, all the intrigue and back stabbing.

Religion

So they have a pantheon of Gods, heavenly and cthonic who sometimes work with, sometimes against, each other, and the creator god is male.

In a general sort of way this places it in the ancient Mesopotamian tradition which inspired various different stands which went west (think greek mythology, hephastus- vaul etc) and east (the light/dark religions mentioned about) and principlally the enuma elis (i think).

There’s a whole big mix of this stuff in the Warhammer elves pantheon, and some stuff they just threw in. Just research some of those mythologies and you'll see the parallels, hard to see which was drawn from which off hand though.

Theres prob a bunch more influences that i missed, but those are the main ones i think.