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The REAL LORE Behind the MEN OF GOLD, STONE and IRON | Warhammer 40,000 Retrospective

Arbitor Ian

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The story of the Men of Gold, Stone and Iron is one of the earliest myths in the world of Warhammer 40k, the way in which the historians of the Imperium make sense of their past. But in reality, it all comes from just two sources. So in this video, let's look at those original sources, and how they've changed over the years

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Copyright: Unless noted in the video, all images © Games Workshop 1987-2022. Title music is 'Black Rainbows' by Karl Casey @White Bat Audio

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20 Comments

@JoshBorlase 2 years ago

I love how you keep the internal lore of the game grounded in the real life history of the game and its makers.

@effigypower5672 2 years ago

I've always been weirdly fascinated by 40K's more obscure fringe bullshit, but it wasn't until you started explaining it that I've come to also enjoy it. Cheers, Ian.

@MobiusCoin 2 years ago

"The facts and the fan theories are often muddled together" This is the single most frustrating thing about lore vids!

@GerardMontyMontgomery 7 months ago

I read this as Perpetuals, humans and androids. With the "golden" perpetuals always pulling strings from behind the scenes.

@S1leNtRIP 2 years ago

Men of the Stone absolutely sounds like Dwarves. The way that Dwarves/Squats are associated with mountains/stone feels like a perfect connection. This video really convinced me they are connected AND of how cool my gut has been telling me the Votann are. I shouldn’t start another army…or should I?

@gabrielwalton4097 2 years ago

The Men of Stone -> Leagues of Votann link is a fun wrinkle on the Men of X myth, I would love for them to explore the Leagues more in general too...

@ShockArcl1te 2 years ago

Of all the videos on this subject, this one is probably the best I've seen.

@The_Rat_Catcher 2 years ago

I like to think that the Men of Stone are similar to Replicants from Blade Runner. They’re used as first wave colonists, a majority of soldiers, labor, etc

@aztecjaguar6571 2 years ago (edited)

The insurrectionists in the ASTARTES animation seem to have been constructing a huge golden man statue in that vault the two psykers were guarding.

Those two weird alien spheres appeared to be made of some sort of intelligent electrically conductive stone, before they sucked in the Space Marine squad, and have organic tentacles in the warp.

@pat0652 2 years ago

Andy Chambers really did a bang up job with that story

@waaaghzag 2 years ago (edited)

In Necromunda there's also an Illegal Hanger-On Brute called an "Iron Automata". It's description matches Men of Iron, in it's wargear it has "Man of Iron" which is piece of armour giving a 3+ save, and it's weapon loadout matches the UR-025 model for Blackstone Fortress. It's an Illegal Hanger-On because it's an AI. It's found in Necromunda: Book of Judgement.

@little_isalina 2 years ago

Leagues of Votann being the new version of Space Dwarves also thematically feels really appropriate for something called Men of Stone.

@deamondeathstone1 8 months ago

I always wondered if Men of Gold couldn't be something as simple as Investors.

@RyanORourke18 2 years ago (edited)

The combination of Ian's voice and those music tracks is delicious. 10/10 would fall asleep to and wake up somewhere in the spiral of YouTube autoplay

@ericmacpherson1713 2 years ago

I haven't played 40k in years but the lore still gets me every time. Great job as ever Ian!

@LordyT34 2 years ago

Ian has become my favorite lore YouTuber, because you can tell how in love with the setting he is, and he's interested just presenting and discussing lore and Warhammer than trying to fix it or just whining about GW

Its refreshing

@josephgarvin3998 2 years ago

I've read the Keeper Cripias page several times, but only this time did I notice that there's a reference to Gene Wolfe's Book of the New Sun - Malrubias is a secondary character there. It's also about a future humanity in a post-tech Dark Age where the past is myth, and "humanity" is heavily implied to have changed in important ways, including spiritual ones.

@ExtradaemonYT 2 years ago

I have to say I love how your videos are framed to combat misinformation as much as they are to inform people about the lore itself. Keep doing what you're doing.