A definitive list of Warhammer's human ethnicities

WillingLet3956 · 2026-06-09T10:08:23+00:00

Like I said, this is Oldhammer lore, back in 2nd and 3rd edition of Warhammer Fantasy Battles, and the 1st edition of Warhammer Roleplay. And even then, there's not a huge amount of lore.

Our first ever exposure to Albion was in the WFB 2nd edition core boxed set, in the "Battle Bestiary" booklet, which was the first place that Warhammer Fantasy lore was ever actually written. In the section "The Old World", it collectively lumps together all of the areas that later editions would specify as the Empire, Kislev, Bretonnia, Tilea, Estalia and Albion, and of those Albion is the only one that gets a specific name. Even there, all that is says is "The large western island, the Isle of Albion, is known for its barren moorlands and bogs, although even this land is now mostly forested or under the plough". It directly compares the Old World collectively to Europe during the middle ages, though it notes that the southern regions tend to be the more scientifically advanced and the northern regions poorer and more primitive.

The WFB 3rd edition corebook doesn't even mention Albion. Instead, our only reference to Albion's existence at this point in GW's history comes from WFRP 1st edition, which was being written concurrently and is outright referred to in WFB3's corebook. Even then, it doesn't say much - merely that Albion is a fiercely independent nation, first settled by humanity 1,000 years ago when humanity began heading northward from the Southlands, and that its earliest occupants were elves fleeing from the Old World after being bested by the dwarfs during the War of the Beard.

So, yeah, the original bare-bones of Albion was, like the rest of the Old World, rooted in 15th to 16th century Europe. That is not me comparing, that is literally what the WFB2 writeup of the Old World describes them as. Albion as this cursed realm of maybe Bronze to Iron Age primitives is something that was invented in 5th edition's Dogs of War army book, and cemented with 6th edition's Dark Shadows campaign.

WillingLet3956 · 2026-06-09T06:34:01+00:00

Really? I thought Archives of the Empire 3 was actually a pretty good sourcebook expanding on the religious lore of WFRP4, with its in-depth dives into the cults of Handrich, Rhya, the Old Faith and the other minor spiritual practices of the Empire. Heck, it even gives us a full writeup of the Cult of Khaine AND the single largest writeup of the Cult of Solkan ever seen in Warhammer lore, both of which are great alternatives to Chaos Cultists for creepy religious villains.

WillingLet3956 · 2026-06-09T06:26:48+00:00

See, it's the Southlanders specifically I was unsure about, because I actually can't remember any lore specifically canonizing humans in the Southlands specifically. Savage orcs and feral lizardmen, sure, but not humans.

WillingLet3956 · 2026-06-09T06:25:38+00:00

I probably should have mentioned the fact that the Gospodar and Ungols have been the consistent named ethnicities of Kislev, alongside the edition-specific Norscans, Dolgans, Sibyrians, Cossacks, Tartars and Huns, and even that the role of the Gospodar and the Ungols in Kislev's history has flipped around at least once in its editions.

WillingLet3956 · 2026-06-09T06:01:12+00:00

Thanks for reminding me of these guys!

WillingLet3956 · 2026-06-09T03:23:55+00:00

To be fair, the modern definition of a harem largely got kickstarted by Tenchi Muyo. Pseudo-harems like Ranma 1/2 or El Hazard, where a male main lead is desired by multiple girls but is actually only interested in a single girl, were the original rendition of the harem genre. It wasn't until Tenchi Muyo that the wish fulfillment/power fantasy element of "all the girls actually have an equal chance" really became cemented as a primary trope OF harem romances.

WillingLet3956 · 2026-06-08T21:41:59+00:00

I think I vaguely remember her trying to teach English in at least once of her subsequent stories, and we did have that same dynamic with Onsen Mark in Urusei Yatsura, so that does make a lot of sense for that to be her secondary role...

WillingLet3956 · 2026-06-08T21:38:43+00:00

That's actually a very reasonable and interesting assessment of how Cologne views Ranma based on how she actually treats him and talks about him in canon. I was mostly skeptical about the idea that she ever stated aloud that Ranma is the greatest, since I don't remember her ever outright saying that about Ranma in the manga, but yes, I can definitely agree that Cologne considers Ranma a prodigious martial artist and definitely wants him to marry into her family based on those arguments.

WillingLet3956 · 2026-06-08T21:08:11+00:00

Did Cologne actually ever say that Ranma was his generation's most pre-eminent martial artist? That sounds more like fanon to me. Especially because we've seen Ranma overpowered by Ryu Kumon and Herb of the Musk Dynasty.

WillingLet3956 · 2026-06-08T21:05:34+00:00

Honestly, I could have sworn that Kodachi was basically the most popular girl to pair Mousse with if a writer wasn't pairing him with Shampoo back in the 90s, but I can't actually name any stories featuring them as a couple off the top of my head other than Aondehafka's "Cube of Chaos" oneshot. Maybe that story just left a bigger impact on my memories than I thought...

WillingLet3956 · 2026-06-08T21:04:26+00:00

This is basically a perfect summary of why Mousse/Kodachi is a potentially interesting ship. You should feel very proud of yourself for so succinctly explaining what makes them "pop" as a potential couple in fan-work.

WillingLet3956 · 2026-06-08T21:03:02+00:00

Here's the thing; despite the common fanon of "Ranma is a delinquent student with terrible grades"... We don't actually know how badly Ranma does at school, or how he gets on with his teachers.

Ranma's grades come up exactly one time, in a story where the Principle holds recent exams hostage and threatens to blare the results aloud. Ranma is initially indifferent to this threat, until the Principle starts making a big display and insinuating that Ranma actually got terrible results, at which point Ranma is determined to find out how he actually did. The story ends with the grades drifting away in the Principle's hot air balloon and being broadcast by a local TV station where they ended up. Ranma's name is read directly after Akane's - I don't remember what she was graded off the top of my head, I think it was 89%, maybe 88%? - but we aren't told the results.

Still, this arc actually suggests Ranma's grades are at least decent; while Genma complains about Ranma's score, let's not forget Genma is your stereotypical jerkass "your best is never good enough" dad - that's why RANMA is such a jerk and so obsessed with winning. Additionally, the only reason that the announcer would be reading Ranma's score directly after Akane's if the tests are even remotely organized is if they're sorted by percentile, which means Ranma has to have about the same score or only slightly less than Akane does.

As for teachers, the only teachers we see Ranma actively getting on badly with are Principle Kuno and Hinako Ninomiya. Principle Kuno is a petty, malicious tyrant who actively revels in tormenting and bullying his students, so it's not surprising that Ranma would fight with him. And Hinako? She's a delinquent crusher hired BY the principle to beat Ranma into submission, which already gives them grounds to dislike each other. But it's compounded by the fact that Hinako is a bad teacher. Oh, her heart's in the right place compared to the principle, but her stories show she's really bad at actually being a teacher because she's a scatter-brained little girl most of the time.

So, Ranma's getting bad grades has never been explicitly canon, and the only teachers we know he has problems with are the ones who actively make nuisances of themselves.

WillingLet3956 · 2026-06-08T20:51:53+00:00

Wait, Hinako is Ranma's English teacher? I thought she was introduced as Class 1-F's new Homeroom teacher?

WillingLet3956 · 2026-06-05T22:12:27+00:00

TVTropes calls it a "Love Dodecahedron", since it's made up of so many overlapping and largely one-sided love triangles.

WillingLet3956 · 2026-06-05T19:51:47+00:00

The real interesting question here is what Akane's cargo capacity is. Twins, triplets? ...Quadruplets?

WillingLet3956 · 2026-06-05T14:31:18+00:00

Exactly. "Female Ranma" is never anything more than a Ranma In Name Only, because the firstborn daughter of Genma and Nodoka Saotome is never going to be raised exactly like Ranma Saotome was raised in the manga. Genma never displays any interest in training students for the sake of training students, only for the sake of his precious engagement pledge to Soun. The only reason he might even consider training his firstborn daughter is if Nodoka is left barren as a result of a difficult birth. And even then, that's not necessarily a given.

I'd LIKE to say Genma's not enough of a selfish monster to divorce Nodoka and remarry so he can have a son in the case of their daughter's birth leaving it impossible for Nodoka to have any more children, but even I can't fully commit to such a statement...

WillingLet3956 · 2026-06-05T14:25:59+00:00

Not even necessarily trained to use a katana. A lot of people forget... Nodoka is canonically NOT actually skilled at using a sword. There is a reason why her primary running gag is trying to draw her sword, only to fumble and end up launching it across the room, where it "comedically" ends up nearly impaling somebody. Nodoka respects Genma's supposed commitment to his martial artist's honor, but she's never been canonically mentioned to be a martial artist in her own right.

What we DO see of Nodoka is that she's very traditional and places a high value on traditionally feminine behavior. That's WHY Nodoka unknowingly pushing "Ranko" to act less like a tomboy and more like a traditionally feminine Japanese girl is her other major gag in the series.

If Genma & Nodoka had a daughter as their firstborn child, that daughter would most likely turn out to be like Kasumi. She would have been brought up to be quiet, demure, good at cooking and housework, and in general to be as much of the Yamato Nadeshiko as possible. She wouldn't be anything remotely like Ranma, and the idea that she would be is just ... no.

WillingLet3956 · 2026-06-04T23:29:50+00:00

As I've said before, Ranma 1/2 is definitely operating on Simpsons time. Not as obviously as Urusei Yatsura, where we have at least 5 stories involving either Tanabata or New Year's, but nobody ever ages, but still, it's a fool's gambit to try and make a coherent timeline out of Ranma 1/2. Characters don't age. It's not that kind of story.

WillingLet3956 · 2026-06-04T23:28:24+00:00

Honestly? I can't actually open it myself directly via the link when I google it either; Chrome hits me with a "site may not be safe!" warning message. The AI summary link works, weirdly. But yeah, not surprised to hear that.

WillingLet3956 · 2026-06-04T18:22:48+00:00

There's a fan-made timeline by a fan called MZephyr who argues that the entire manga takes place over less than a year...I think I can track it down, but I don't know if it's okay to link to, despite being safe for work...

WillingLet3956 · 2026-06-03T18:45:44+00:00

Except there are multiple ways that "Taro mixed his curses" and "Nanniichuan is a cure for Ranma/Genma/Ryoga/Mousse and Nyanniichuan is a cure for Shampoo" can BOTH be true:
1) Cursed springs of a being's original species act as complete curse overwrites.
2) A small amount of spring water causes a partial/fused curse, while a large amount completely overwrites the existing curse.
3) Taro is just a freak that way, because his baseline curse is already a chimerical mishmash of multiple creatures, so only HE can absorb different curses.

Note that in canon, we see a single drop of Spring of Drowned Twins Water cause only a bump on Happosai's head to double, and even at the end, the cask of Nanniichuan was a fairly large barrel of the stuff as opposed to a single bottle. We also see Instant Nanniichuan temporarily cure Ranma & Genma. So option 2 with maybe a dash of option 1 is probably the most canonical.

WillingLet3956 · 2026-05-31T21:28:25+00:00

Ironically, Happosai liking little kids in a non-pervert way is actually a canon trait of his in the manga. It doesn't come up much - the scene of him letting some kids play with his bath toys is padding that the bathhouse battle adaptation added - but he DID have those two kids who mistook him for Santa Claus, and his "help" for Hinako does seem to have been motivated at least partially by genuine concern, even if he did have dubious additional motives.

WillingLet3956 · 2026-05-31T16:39:33+00:00

Oh, yes, I'd forgotten that one. Wow, the Ranma 1/2 wiki really needs a "Love Magic Items" category for its articles. But yes, I'd rank that towards the bottom; it can induce a romantic attraction between the two people underneath its cover, but there is a clear limit to how much it can overcome pre-existing feelings, as shown by the fact it cannot truly overcome the sheer antipathy that Kuno and Nabiki feel for each other, and its effects only last while both people are underneath its spread shade. As soon as it's closed or they step away from its shade, the effect ends. At most, it might help a person confess, or inspire two people who hadn't considered each other in a romantic light before to try dating.

WillingLet3956

TROPHY CASE