It’s well known that Empire in Flames was rushed out to bring the Enemy Within campaign to an end. The manuscript was written extremely quickly by Carl Sargent, working to a brief which probably came from Phil Gallagher. It was edited and laid out by Mike Brunton as Flame’s first (unofficial) project. In keeping with GW’s new policy toward WFRP, art was re-used from the GW archives as much as possible – which explains the appearance of the Advanced Heroquest heroes in some images.

Like Something Rotten in Kislev (covered in last week’s post), Empire in Flames was not well-liked by the public. When Hogshead Publishing acquired the WFRP license from GW and began reprinting the campaign, James Wallis made it know that he would be commissioning an all-new final instalment, under the working title Empire in Chaos. That never happened, but WFRP superfan ‘Mad’ Alfred Nunez published his own version of a finale for free under the title Empire at War, which can still be found online.

Here is a quick run-though of the things I found in Empire in Flames. There may very well be more, so feel free to add your own finds in the comments!

NPC Names

The re-used art means that there are no hidden jokes in the illustrations, and the plot of the adventure is pretty straightforward, for all its flaws. However, Carl’s humor shows itself well enough in the names of certain NPCs.

The Kislevite princess Anastasia Schelepin takes her first name from the murdered Romanoff princess and her last from Soviet politician and intelligence officer Alexander Schelepin. Her chaperone, Katarina Bukharin, is named for revolutionary Nikolai Bukharin, and her fiance-to-be is a junior member of the regrettably-named Krieglitz-Untermensch family.

The Witch Hunter Theophilus Habermas is another spot-the-philosopher name: in this case, Jürgen Habermas, and the Hochsleben physician Johann Schiller takes his name from the philosopher and playwright Friedrich Schiller. It is not clear whether he is related to the Wizard’s Apprentice Hans-Peter Schiller from Death on the Reik.

Doctor Ludwig von Ente’s last name means ‘duck,’ which may be Carl’s way of hinting that he is a quack. I used the same joke in Death’s Dark Shadow, where a Doctor Entesang (‘duck song,’ according to my pocket German dictionary) created a Frankenstein-style monster.

Don Roberto y Monterrey, from Barsellon, is a direct steal from Fawlty Towers and the waiter Manuel, who speaks very little English and responds to most questions with ¿Que? Owner Basil Fawlty says of him at least once, ‘Don’t mind him, he’s from Barcelona.’ Don Roberto’s traveling companion, Ali Hand’ el Bar ben ibn Khazi, has a comedy-Arabian name that is typical of the lazy stereotypes common in those days. ‘Khazi’ was a British slang term for a toilet at that time. Its etymology is debated, but it does not seem to come from Arabic.

The Goblins in Karar-Khalizad include ‘sprogs’ and ‘YOBs’ – the first a British slang term for a child and the second a common term for any kind of hooligan at the time. ‘Yob’ may (or may not) have originated as ‘boy’ spelled backwards.

The name of Andreas Blumentopf the Templar translates as ‘flowerpot,’ while the Daemonette Gropefondel’sss is a typical Carl name for such creatures. The Slaanesh cultists Emmanuelle Flaschflascher and Anika Furrfondler fare little better than the Daemonette in that department, and nor do their male comanions Axel Throblieben and Joachim Humprutter.

The name of the Chaos Sorcerer Martin Gladische translates as ‘gladiatorial.’

The barge Hindenburg is named after the ill-fated zeppelin, and the name of its owners, Gustav and Diehl Fahrtripper, is an Anglo-German pun (German fahrt – ‘journey’ plus English ‘tripper’) which is pronounced ‘fart-ripper.’ The German valediction Gute fahrt – ‘good journey’ – has always been hilarious to English ears.

The name of Ludovicus Grossprattler is fairly self-explanatory: he prattles, and it’s gross. As I said, Carl write this adventure phenomenally quickly.

…and that’s it for Empire in Flames. I haven’t decided what I’ll do next week: I might carry on with other WFRP 1st edition titles, or I might do something else. It all depends on how this series is received.

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