Warhammer Fantasy != Warhammer 40K. In Warhammer Fantasy I think the Empire is more of an allegory for early capitalist imperialism/colonialism coming out of Europe but I’m not an expert on that setting.
It’s army to army, for sure. Tomb Kings are ripped straight from Egyptian history, including the horsemen being a mercenary company, Skaven are just nazis, Bretonnians are a bunch of knights and peasants, etc…
I would say you could point to it being more like a portrayal of the HRE.
Colonialism isn’t really a big part of the The Empire, that’s more of a Ulthuan/High Elves (stand-in for the British Empire) thing, and The Empire is portrayed as a feudal/pre-capitalist mercantile economy. The proto-capitalists I would say are located in the city-state of Marienburg, which is a sort of stand-in for somewhere like 15th-16th century Lübeck.
There’s not a ton of modern day allegory in WH:F. 40k obviously is dripping in it, but Fantasy is mostly just “we stole Tolkien’s shit and then combined it with a heavy metal poster and tossed in the HRE for good measure. Now watch this dwarf break a Daemon Prince’s kneecaps with his bitchin’ warhammer.”
Warhammer Fantasy != Warhammer 40K. In Warhammer Fantasy I think the Empire is more of an allegory for early capitalist imperialism/colonialism coming out of Europe but I’m not an expert on that setting.
It’s army to army, for sure. Tomb Kings are ripped straight from Egyptian history, including the horsemen being a mercenary company, Skaven are just nazis, Bretonnians are a bunch of knights and peasants, etc…
I would say you could point to it being more like a portrayal of the HRE.
Colonialism isn’t really a big part of the The Empire, that’s more of a Ulthuan/High Elves (stand-in for the British Empire) thing, and The Empire is portrayed as a feudal/pre-capitalist mercantile economy. The proto-capitalists I would say are located in the city-state of Marienburg, which is a sort of stand-in for somewhere like 15th-16th century Lübeck.
Marienburg has more dutch influence, most of the local languages is like fantasy dutch instead of fantasy german of the empire.
That’s a good catch, and you’re absolutely right.
There’s not a ton of modern day allegory in WH:F. 40k obviously is dripping in it, but Fantasy is mostly just “we stole Tolkien’s shit and then combined it with a heavy metal poster and tossed in the HRE for good measure. Now watch this dwarf break a Daemon Prince’s kneecaps with his bitchin’ warhammer.”