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PC Gamer
PC Gamer
Sean Martin

Today I learned the real reason Warhammer 40k's iconic 'Land Raider' got its name and it ain't because it raids the land

Warhammer 40k Land Raider art.

The universe of Warhammer 40k is not a very nice place to live. Everyday there are a thousand potential ways you could die and none of them particularly pleasant, but it's easy to forget that, despite its grimness and its darkness, 40k can also be goofy as hell. Take the Land Raider for instance, an iconic Space Marine tank capable of unleashing devastation as it rolls across the land, raiding, if you will.

What if I told you that the Land Raider and Land Speeder are both actually named after the person who discovered their blueprints, a Tech Priest named, I kid you not, Arkhan Land. So no, not because they raid or speed over the land, but because they are Land's Raiders and Land's Speeders. It's a detail mentioned in the Horus Heresy novel, The Master of Mankind (where Land features as a character), but I'd somehow forgotten it until I was reading the short story collection, The Burden of Loyalty, specifically, Into Exile by Aaron Dembski-Bowden:

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