So, they are obviously inspired by multiple races from the East.

Stretching all the way from Norway to Japan...


It is quite a common trick in Games design to use more than one source of inspiration, as it helps remove the models from their real-world counterparts.



Personally, I see them as being predominantly based on the Mongols, although, I'm not sure that they ever used chariots. As far as I know, neither did the Vikings. Although, it may have been a possibility for any that went towards Scotland and Ireland, assuming the Picts were still about.

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I think quite a few of Tolkiens characters/races are based on real life people. Examples:
Rohan - Anglo Saxons
Harad - Middle Eastern counteries

Uh... Wait up just a sec now... Khand inspired by Vikings? In what way?

The closest there is to Vikings, would be the Rohan Warriors on foot if you cut off the horse details.

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Gold, silver, mithril.. You call that stuff treassure? Copper is the real deal!

In that they seem to be a race of intermittent tribesmen, banding together to follow their leaders, happy enough to sell their services as mercenaries, and aren't above fighting amongst themselves when they aren't out raiding.


Also, I'd consider the Dunlendings over the Rohirrim as being the closest to Vikings.

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Well, except that usually only the Viking chieftains had chainmail shirts or helmets. And that there's no such thing as "a viking", they said "To go viking", which means something like exploring by boat, hard to translate to english. Apart from when they went "to go viking", they were much like any medeival european people.

Anyhow, let's not slide off-topic. =P

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Gold, silver, mithril.. You call that stuff treassure? Copper is the real deal!

Well the one word we have for the Dunlendings "forghoil" is a sort of cod-Gaelic (says the Irish guy).

The Dunlendings are some sort of Scots type. I'd say they are just Welsh/Brythonic, but apparently the good professor thought Welsh was awesome and Gaelic was horrible, so we'll put them down as a Q-Celtic speaking quasi Pictish sorts. There seems to have been Picts (aka Cruithne) on both sides of the Irish Sea, so... whatever.

(That being said, the various Irish chieftains paid very close heed to the vikings when they showed up, so they started acting and fighting like the viking invaders, so if one sort of squinted you can imagine a Gaelic speaking lord referring to his oath-bound oglaigh as "house-warriors" which eventually gets you to Huscarl).

As for Khand-as-Vikings, see above. That's what the word "variag" means in Russian.

The Mongols didn't use chariots, but the Pechenegs (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pechenegs) sort of did.

I figure the various horse-Easterlings were more Huns than Mongols. Same sort of idea, but the Huns figured predominantly in Gemanic myth (Attila shows up a few times in the sagas). Both used those big scary horse bows though.

Gavin

The armoured GW Dunlendings are more viking than rohhirrim in my opinion.

Wait, isn't that what the Dunlendings call the Rohirrim?

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Some of the Oct release is up. Don't know if this has been posted yet. I think I've seen some of it talked about but haven't seen a link yet.

http://www.games-workshop.com/gws/catalog/armySubUnitCats.jsp?catId=cat1360000&rootCatGameStyle=lotr

New commanders for Easterling and Harad. Plus the last two Nazgul. Most is decent. Don't care for the Black Guard at all.

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Beowulf03809 wrote:


Yes, this has already been posted in the Fallen Realms on GW advance order forum at http://www.one-ring.co.uk/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=16153. Thanks though.

The "for" was meant to be "from"

Meaning the Dunlendings speak a sort of cod-Gaelic. In fact it looks so much like Irish that I'd almost be certain it is a word. Just its not "straw-heads"

This is as close as my English-Irish dictionary brings me... forgabh, v take by force, seize, secure.
That could easily be along the lines of what Tolkien was saying, as the Dunlendings would have looked on the Rohirrim as being some invaders from the North, almost as if the Dunlendings were British/Irish and the Rohirrim Vikings.

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"Mustard the Rohirrim! We've got to ketchup with those Uruk-fries before they capture the Hornburger!"

Thank you Captain Ingold!

My dim and distant memories of Irish class were failing me terribly. All I could work out was that "straw" and "head" don't get you forghoil.

I shall give you a coin!

Gavin

I don't get all these Samurai references. They strike me as much more like Mongols. Eye of the beholder and all that. I agree GW has bigger fish to fry before lifting a finger on Khand.

But we all know better than assume what GW will do.

Perhaps there are some more Khandish miniatures in May.. knowing GW, the money suckers, they will release some extra non cannonical khand miniatures. (samurai)

It was an Easterling called Brodda that called the Rohirrim Forgoil, so not sure of the etymology; I don't think anyone knows what the professor was alluding to but it obviously meant something to him.

Variags is indeed another name for the Varangians, the Byzantine emperor's body guard. The most renowned Varangian being Harald Hardrada. After Hastings, many English thegns fled the country and joined the ranks rather than be subjected to Norman tyranny. Also, the Rus (once again etymology unknown) from possibly the modern Sweden/Finland area were raiding and trading up and down the various rivers of the north-central Europe area and gave their name to what became Russia.

I don't know where GW got their Mongol/Eastern references from but I can only assume that as they were eastern they took it to mean the Far East, i.e. Asia rather than the far east of Europe.

I was fairly sure that the Dunlendings were the ones to refer to the Rohirim as "Forgoil", which meant "Straw-heads" in their language. Could be wrong though.

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Except in English there is, since the nordic word "Viking" has been adopted for those peoples during that period of history.

So with the may release, I guess we don't have to wait for plastic Khand miniatures.

Well unless those minis already seen on GW are not all of the releases, im afraid you will have to wait fro some plastic Khand. To be honsest its not a range that i think needs to be released in plastic, at least not at the moment.

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