Why Warhammer 40k's Land Raider is named after a Tech Priest

Warhammer 40k is grim, but it can also be goofy. The Land Raider, an iconic Space Marine tank capable of unleashing devastation as it rolls across the land, is often assumed to be named for its raiding role. In fact, both the Land Raider and Land Speeder take their names from a Tech Priest named Arkhan Land, who discovered the blueprints.

The short story collection The Burden of Loyalty, specifically "Into Exile," explains that Arkhan Land led expeditions into Mars’s data-crypts, brought back early anti-grav technology, and unearthed schematics that enabled mass production of the raiders and speeders.

The machines, the text says, are even named for him now. Arkhan Land turns up several times in the Horus Heresy as an irascible technoarchaeologist, most memorably with a pet Simian (a psyber-monkey) on his shoulder. When the naming detail resurfaced many assumed it was a retcon, but he was already cited as the founder of the Land Raider in White Dwarf issue 129 in 1990 — just three years after Warhammer 40k’s creation.

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