In Relation to REAL Armies...

[Smotku]

Firsst off The Roman Empire is a very different thing than the Holy Roman Empire. Ultramarines most reflect the Roman Empire in Names and Iconography as well as maintaining a sort of " Pax Romana" in there own sector of space. The Holy Roman Empire was an early version of Germany that was, (according to some famous person) niether Holy nor Roman nor an Empire. It existed in one form or another from the 11th century until the 17th century. It never was a tight political entity at best a loose confederation that had pretensions to greatness under certain powerful monarchs.

The Eldar defy description as they are really a manifestation of a Fantasy Genre.

The Empire as a whole actually bears a striking resemblance to the byzantine Empire. A Theocratic Empire that is powerful but on a long and inevitalbe decline due to corruption and decadence and being harried by younger upstart races and barbarians seeking its destruction.

I have to disagree with those who say the Necrons arnet based on Egyptian mythos. All the symbolism archetecture and Iconography are explicitly egyption. Thier fluff speaks directly to the Egytptian obsession with the afterlife. The thousand Sons also are an explicitly egyptian motif except they follow the magical aspect of ancient Egypt.

The Tau are Communist Chinese + modern Japan except more benign.

As for a few others the Blood Angel certainly have the whole Vamp thing but I think they follow a Renaisance Italian motiff more than any other.

Orks are the Germanic Barbarians of the Late Roman Empire period with the whole might makes right attitude.

Many other Space Marine Chapters borrow various historical motiffs

Imperial Guard do the same thing.

[eldargal]

It was Napoleon who said it was neither holy nor Roman, and it was he who dissolved it in 1805. It lasted from the coronation of Charlemagne in A.D. 800 to the above date.

I'm sorry but there is very little about the Necrons that is Egyptian, many races had an obsession with death, and some, like the Mesopotamians and even the Maya have an aesthetic that is far similar to the Necrons than that of Egypt. There is certainly nothing Egyptian about the Necron script.

[MaltonNecromancer]

Necrons aren't Egyptian. They're Tomb Kings IN SPACE! Which is about the lamest thing GW could have made them. The aesthetics are Egyptian in the same way that the film "The Mummy" is Egyptian; only in a "looks the same to an untrained eye" way.

I really wish GW would do a proper "Robot" army that wasn't just some rehashed WHFB pile of cack.Seriously, how hard is it to do 40K robots? We keep hearing about the Iron Men, and that would be awesome - just claim they didn't all get killed, they just hid really well, and went into stasis like the Necrons, and now they've come back.

Stupid Egyptian terminator endoskeletons make me sad.

[Deadlift]

It was Napoleon who said it was neither holy nor Roman, and it was he who dissolved it in 1805. It lasted from the coronation of Charlemagne in A.D. 800 to the above date.

I'm sorry but there is very little about the Necrons that is Egyptian, many races had an obsession with death, and some, like the Mesopotamians and even the Maya have an aesthetic that is far similar to the Necrons than that of Egypt. There is certainly nothing Egyptian about the Necron script.

I disagree wholeheartedly, just look at the Monolith (just says Egyptian pyramid) all the scarabs and the old style necron lord, all these models scream out ancient egypt. Obviously everyone has their way of looking at things but to me the necrons just say Egypt.........in space

[Smotku]

I agree that it is not a completely accurate portrayal of Ancient Egypt but it is far closer to Ancient Egypt than any other culture. I dont see any resemblance to the Mayans. The Lizard Men have that theme.

The specific things that make references to Egyptian are ...They are always portrayed as being in deserts, the Monolith resembles an egyptian Pyramid far more than a Mayan or any other pyramids. The Tomb theme, scarabs, skeletal warriors (thats from GW site), An obession with death and afterlife, the mummy like appearance of certain units. The name Necron essentially means death.

The things that arent egyptian are the C'tan, the robotic terminator like appaerance. They also dont apply other charactoristics of Ancient Egypt such as the natural aspect, most Egyptian dieties have animal heads and the Necron theme is a misapllication of the death and rebirth motif found in many egyptian myths. But things do come back to life.

The comparison to the Mummy ( the movie) is correct in that it is a shallow poetrayal of ancient Egypt it still is based on Egypt. Sorta like saying that Taco Bell is Mexican food. It isnt really Mexican food but it uses the forms.

[FirBholg]

At the risk of turning this into a thread about Necrons, as I said, to me the style of the monolith resembles the blocky, cyclopean style of mesoamerica far more than Egypt. Of course, a lot of the reasons you state for associating the Necrons with Egypt can be applied equally to the Maya (and similar cultures) - obsession with death, pyramids, mummies... Essentially the Necrons are based on concepts or archetypes common to a number of civilisations (to be fair, mesoamerican history is a particular interest of mine . ).

That said, of course the original concept for Necrons was essentially tomb-kings in space - scarabs, chariots (the destroyers were specifically described like this), and the pointy-headed Necron lord. Heck, ankhs featured on the original models, iirc. At least they've evolved and developed a bit since then - I'm really hoping that they do something interesting with the new Necron codex (not least since the two newer races have both had two codicies to the Necrons' one so far).