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:
"One side of the briefing display is given over to data relating to Arkhan Land, the Arkhan Land. The explorer and scholar responsible for so many expeditions into the ancient Data-Crypts of Mars's crust and mantl...


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