Warhammer used to be a very different game. I’m not talking about 40k 9th Edition, or even 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Fantasy Battles here. Of course the games have evolved over time, but more importantly, so have the vibes. 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Warhammer started as a group of mates messing around, basically. Stories were threadbare, grand space operas lacking the grounding or gravitas o𒁏f modern novels and codices. Characters were either heroic champions with elaborate Latin names or personal💛 in-jokes between their creators. Obiwan Sherlock Clousseau was even better.
The first Inquisitor, Mr. Clousseau (I’m not sure if it’s double barrelled or if Sherlock is a middle name), appeared all the way back in 1987, back when Warhammer 40,000 was released under the name Rogue Trader. But why was he named after three famous detective heroes? How did he fit into the budgeoning 40k lore? And how did Games Worksh♒op get away with stealing names from some of the biggest IP in the world?
Obiwan’s name likely came about as the minds at 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Games Workshop in the ‘80s thought up characters and roles in the universe they were creating. Inquisitors are exactly that, inquisitive. They’re paranormal investigators, daemon excisors, and aren’t shy of a thorough interrogation if they sus💙pect heresy. While their ways are noticeably more violent than that of Holmes or Clousseau, the inspiration of the great detectives is clear. Obiwan, named aft🥀er Kenobi of Star Wars fame (and with the hyphen removed, for some reason), is the odd one out.
The reason that the old Jedi is namedropped has an even more simple answer. Games Workshop in the ‘80s was made up of nerds who wanted to make a science fiction game. What else would they reference than 🏅the most popular space opera of the time? I’ll bet they all went to the cinema – maybe Broadway or the Savoy in Nottingham – to see Return of the Jedi and immediately added a character named after Alec Guinness’ wizened mentor. These were not as litigious times, and Warhammer was still incredibly niche. It wasn’t that ‘90s subculture niche, it wa꧟sn’t international covens of nerds niche, it was a few hundred people playing in England and probably nowhere else niche.
If Games Workshop wanted to reprint the origi🌟nal Rogue Trader rules (I don’t know why it would, that goes against everything New GW has shown us), it would have to rename the iconic Inquisitor. Disney just wouldn’t stand for this sort of IP theft, no matter how much of an Easter Egg or homage it is. But the ‘80s was a different time, for major film studios and for Games Workshop.
This was an era of Warhammer where nearly everything was a reference. There was a whole RP🎶G based on the miner’s strike, with characters based on Margaret Thatcher and Arthur Scargill. Modern Games Workshop has evolved in much the same way as Star Wars has: it now plays everything safe so as not to offend and to sell toy soldiers to as many people as possible. There are minor deviations to this, Andor and the Cursed City are aimed at more niche audiences with harder-hitting narratives and more gruesome models, but most new products for both companies are crowd-pleasing, copyrightable pulp.
Gam♏es Workshop in the ‘80s had bite, it had a little edge. It was a bit punk. Its extreme growth has turned it into any other corporation. That might be inevitable, but Obiwan Sherlock Clousseau is a relic of the past, a reminder of days gone, and a symbol of what we will never have again.