The only thing I would add to the bit we missed (aside from pointing out that a hell of a lot of Fighting Fantasy books punish you for not behaving like a moron...) is the pirates are CHAOS PIRATES who are, in fact, more or less exactly like the Chaos forces in warhams - there's a beastman shaman and Chaos Knights and everything. This gave me geek joy.

That would make sense, though, wouldn't it? Wasn't it Steve Jackson who helped found Games Workshop in the first place?

Then again, I guess that that in itself is a source for geek joy. It's always nice to see the odd, embryonic stages of stuff you're fond of.

Wasn't it Steve Jackson who helped found Games Workshop in the first place?

Steve and Ian were both the co-founders of Games Workshop and the Warhammer world was developed in parallel with the Fighting Fantasy world, so yeah, no surprise that there's heaps of connections.

Though ultimately goaty beastmen shamen in the service of Chaos come from the Runequest RPG and Chaos knights and weird mutant spawn come from Moorcock; the reason all those appear in warhams Chaos armies is that Citadel were producing licensed miniatures for the Runequest and Stormbringer (Elric) RPGs, so when they made warhams they noticed they had two "chaos" lines of minis and decided to mash them together into one big army.

Sometimes it makes me just the tiniest bit sad that "BLOOD FOR THE BLOOD GOD" has become a meme while "Arioch! Blood and soul for my lord Arioch!" never caught on. And that's coming from someone who doesn't even like the Elric stuff much.

It is a mild shame, but then again BLOOD FOR THE BLOOD GOD is snappier.

It's bizarre. Even my friends who don't like/aren't interested in wh40k at all find [X] FOR THE [X] GOD strangely compelling.

Presenting objects to the god of that object is a simple form of worship for a complicated time.

I brought you some blood but I eated it?

You're a vampire?

*sparkles*

Kyra: Why do we even have that lever?

Brilliant! Oh gods, I don't even particularly like that movie, but my family quotes that line, and “Wrong leverrrrrrrrrrr … !” all the time. They're just so wonderfully applicable.