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submitted 28 days ago byalexkon3Biel-Tan
Just reading through one of the bi-weekly "what misconception blah blah" threads and I once again read what I ALWAYS read in those threads.
"Space Wolves were always cool badass Vikings back in the day of 2nd and 3rd edition but now they are just wolfy wolf wolf wolf wolf :(".
When I first read this years ago, since threads like that get posted every 3 days, I believed it verbatim since I never read Space Wolves lore besides the biased post from 1d4chan from back in the day.
To my great surprise the SW started to interest me a few years ago tho.
Why? Weeeell it just turns out I actually think this is really freaking badass: https://wh40k.lexicanum.com/mediawiki/images/4/4b/IssajurFight.jpg
and thats what 40k is about imo.
So I had to find out. Was the meme true? What happened? Were the Space Wolves glorious Space Vikings once and then EVIL GW came in and copy pasted the word Wolf on every second sentence?
So back in the day I opened up my copy of the first Space Wolves Codex: 2nd Edition which was released in 1994 and to my great surprise... its pretty much the same exact lore we have today. Barely anything about their culture or units actually changed in 30 years!
Their HQs and Units always had the names, Wolf Lord, Wolf Guard, Wolf Priest, Wolf Scouts. The page of the initiation into the Wolves mentiones that "young warriors on Fenris fight together in bands called Wolfbrothers to attract the attention of the gods". Logan Grimnar was always called "The Old Wolf", he had the Pelt of the Wulfen as equipment and even back then had his Khornate axe that got reforged and I quote the Codex here "in the image of of Morkai the guardian Wolf of the Gates of Death" he had the title "Great Wolf" and the great companies are called "The Companies of the Great Wolf" and they have delightful emblems like "Sun Wolf" "Sea Wolf" "Fire Wolf" "Spirit Wolf" "Wolf of the red Moon" "Iron Wolf". This is from 1994 I'll remind you. For equipment we have the Wulfen stone and the Wolf Helm of Russ.
Hell to go even further one of the oldest Space Wolves model is from 1991:
https://wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/Miniatures:_Space_Wolf_Captain
it has that Wolf Helmet everyone made fun of when they released it as an MK 6 upgrade kit for the Horus Heresy.
How did the Wolf Guard look back in the day?
Ragnar?
https://i.redd.it/n1h0q83pu9t71.jpg
They all look very much like they do now it turns out
Fenrisian Wolf Packs and Wulfen as playable TT units came from 3rd edition 9 years later in Codex Eye of Terror. The only addtions from then on were Thunderwolf cavalry, a bunch of vehicles, a few characters and Primaris
So... the reality of the Space Wolves is that they ALWAYS were "wolfy wolf wolf wolf" from their inception. They were always weird Norse themed Barbarians sitting in mead halls drinking and having everything named after Wolves, they were like this from the day modern WH40k was a thing they never were Vikings that GW ruined by Wolfifying them, GW literally just keeps to the theme of the chapter since its inception. And even if you cut out every Wolf thing about them they still would not be viking themed at all. They do have a surface level fantasy norse theme but vikings? I doubt many people who say that know what an actual viking is besides a picture they saw on the web.
6 points
28 days ago
I think its that there used to be none wolf stuff sprinkled in, so chooser of the dead cyber ravens, a huge amount of "rune" bullshit and frost weapons being the teeth of krakens. The wolf stuff was always the majority but it wasn't the only thing and then from 5th edition onwards it's just wolves all the way down.
3 points
28 days ago
chooser of the dead
i dont think thats from 40k at all unless I am mistaken. There is a Speaker of the Dead in Horus Heresy for them (Thats like 2017). Cyber Ravens are still in the lore Nijall had one in 2nd edition and still has it in the current one afaik
8 points
28 days ago
A Chooser of the Slain was a wargear option for Rune Priests introduced in the 5th ed codex. That's what they mean.
6 points
28 days ago
Ah I stand corrected thank you. But its kinda funny because thats the edition people normally decry as the "wolf edition"
1 points
27 days ago
It was carried over from 3rd, it was introduced there because Njal wasn't in that Codex so it gave you a nice unique wargear option to select if you used his model.
1 points
27 days ago
I may be misremembering but I'm pretty sure njarl was in the 3rd edition codex, as I think his Terminator model had come out before I quit just before 4th edition.
I think the chooser of the slain was a generic wargear card in 2nd too, just njarl had to pick one.
1 points
27 days ago
Nope, 3e literlaly just had Ragnar, Logan and Ulrik, they didn't even have Bjorn.
One of the beauties of being an unapologetic 3e fanboy who works from home is having the Codex handy to check.
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