Warhammer Fantasy: Divided Loyalties - an Advisor's Quest
- Thread starter Boney
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Didn't he actually get sued by the Lovecraft estate for stealing Cuthullu and the other elder gods?
Ah, just looked it up, and an early printing of Deities and Demigods contained Lovecraftian gods, but Chaosium held the license to produce an RPG based upon them at the time, and accused TSR of infringing on their copyright. The case never went to court, with both companies coming to a mutual agreement regarding the copyright—TSR could use them, but had to include a copyright statement thanking Chaosium for permission to use them.
Future printings of the book would remove the Lovecraftian gods to avoid further issues.
Future printings of the book would remove the Lovecraftian gods to avoid further issues.
Parabola
Divided Loyalties Librarian
- Location
- The Destination of Fate
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Canonically speaking, up until the point where he first gets his body destroyed, along his capacity to take fair forms, Sauron absolutely is described as being a pretty boy around whom people let their guards down.
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Originally they were called hobbits and the Tolkien estate sued, so they were changed to halflings (the Tolkien estate sued over a bunch of terms, actually, but the settlement was to change three: balrog, ent, and hobbit).
I actually really dislike the change, mostly because halfling is so clearly a word applied by others. Hobbits aren't half of anything, they're their own thing. In Tolkien, humans meeting them for the first time called them holbytlan, hole-dwellers (well, they called them Kûd-dûkan, which drifted to kuduk by modern times, but Tolkien was doing this complicated thing where words in human languages presented translated to the audience were also translated etymologically, so because Westron was translated as English, Rohirric was analogous in his schema to Old English, and so he set up an analogous etymological chain -- did that all make sense? No? I agree completely), and "halfling" was a later term given to them by people who were literally twice their height, but they don't call themselves that, because it makes no sense for that to be an endonym!
When I've run D&D, since they are no longer literal hole-dwellers like the Tolkien version, I've instead stolen from the Forgotten Realms campaign setting and given them an endonym deriving from their word for speed, glossed as "quick-folk" in translation, and people of other races familiar with them and on friendly terms use that rather than halfling. I have no idea whether they have a canonical name for themselves in the Warhammer setting, but if they don't I totally intend to keep using that idea if I ever write an omake where it would come up.
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As of Archives of the Empire, page 45, the endonym for Warhammer's halflings is Haffen, with the Reikspiel 'Halfling' being a mangling of that.
K von Carstein
Likes to go for a walk
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Speaking of lawsuits, was Game Workshop sued by the Tolkien estate about their use of the word « Eldar »? Or was it authorised?
NavySeel
"I don't know what I'm doing."
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Everybody is clearly misinterpreting the term Half-Ling. 
They aren't a race in the sense of Humans, Dwarfs or Elves. They're like in D&D where you have Half-Elves and Half-Orcs...
Now I have no Idea what Ling actually is but judging by the size of Half-Lings they may be too small to see with the naked eye, explaining why they never actually show up.
They aren't a race in the sense of Humans, Dwarfs or Elves. They're like in D&D where you have Half-Elves and Half-Orcs...
Now I have no Idea what Ling actually is but judging by the size of Half-Lings they may be too small to see with the naked eye, explaining why they never actually show up.
How many Lings can dance on the head of a pin?
We'll, according to Google a ling is a group of long-bodied fish. I don't really see how the halfling marine ancestry comes through at all, though. Do they even like swimming?Everybody is clearly misinterpreting the term Half-Ling.
They aren't a race in the sense of Humans, Dwarfs or Elves. They're like in D&D where you have Half-Elves and Half-Orcs...
Now I have no Idea what Ling actually is but judging by the size of Half-Lings they may be too small to see with the naked eye, explaining why they never actually show up.
NavySeel
"I don't know what I'm doing."
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Perhaps it doesn't show in their external anatomy but in the internals, Many fish do not have the ability to tell if they are full and can actually eat themselves to death. As we all know Half-lings are known to eat excessive amounts for their size.
My theory is that fish are naturally resistant to Chaos. When is the last time you saw a fish that was a cultist? The Old Ones took advantage of this to create their greatest warriors, unfortunately the race of Ling proto types were only semi completed, leaving a bunch of still unfinished Prototypes, or Half-Lings in you would.
Mopman43
Mountain-Hermit of Nitpeak
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- Vermont
All right, now we need to tie this into the earlier theory about Slannesh having a secret underwater kingdom of Crab-people cultists…
NavySeel
"I don't know what I'm doing."
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See, Crabs, not fish, the Old Ones true greatest creations are fighting an eternal war beneath the waves against the Crab People and the Firmir.
Parabola
Divided Loyalties Librarian
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- The Destination of Fate
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Crabs were a prototype for a type of life the Old Ones never got to finish, but they left the blueprints on everything's DNA. This is why carcinisation is a thing.
[X] Plan Discretion Is The Watchword
[X] Plan Middle Ground
[X] Plan Middle Ground
deathofrats0808
Don’t think of it as dying; just as leaving early
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- Earth
This is especially notable because the Dúnedain were taller than most Men, so it wasn't like the Hobbits were half the height of most people anyway!
According to my long ago German lessons, Haffen means lagoons? Not sure that's right, but eh. Could be interesting at least.
I don't think they were ever sued about it. They have changed all their names now though, so maybe there was a worry?
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there was a big lawsuit they 'kind of won, kind of lost' with Chapterhouse Studios.
it doesn't exactly affect the naming of their models/games/books (as long as they actually make the models/games/books) but changing the names is part of a broader policy of doubling down on IP ownership.
There is a lot of argument about if they can 'own' broad or well-used words like high elf or Stormtroopers, but they definitely can own 'Tempestus Scions' and 'Aeldari '
deathofrats0808
Don’t think of it as dying; just as leaving early
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GW lost the Chapterhouse lawsuit so hard it's directly responsible for all of the goodwill and public response they've been doing over the last 7-8 years. Chapterhouse fell apart because they were two people in a garage somewhere, but GW's response really screwed themselves.
Didn't actually realise that the name changes happened at the same time, but it does make sense.
They can't own terms like "High Elf" or "Stormtrooper". Both predate GW as a company, let alone their use of them.
.... that's what I said? that they are IP proofing their products?
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deathofrats0808
Don’t think of it as dying; just as leaving early
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- Earth
You said there was argument about if they can own those terms. There's not. They can't.
I assume it's because Kislev has Hag Witches who can more easily tell the difference between a god and a spirit, so that those who are actually gods get proper veneration, and those that are spirits are instead recognised as such.
