As title. Anyone know the story behind?

"In chem. and the arts, a vessel of glass, earthenware, metal, etc., employed for the purpose of distilling or effecting decomposition by the aid of heat."

Also used for alchemy back in the dark old days.

I asked myself this question many times but I'm not seeing the connection between a chemistry tool and having a special ability like warlord. Is that supposed to imply we get these abilities by drinking some magical liquid instead of...learning them the normal way from schools or books or idk?

Perhaps they went with a material-oriented name since it's possible to find retorts after clearing a monster lair and start using them immediately (they're not just a personality trait).

In the German version of the game, they were called "Antwort" which translate as "answer" or "response".

"Retort" in English also has the synonym of sort of a spicy response. Does "antwort" not have a synonym?

No, it just means answer as in responding to a question.

I spoke with my missus who is German and she says she's never worried about the translation into German but she thinks it is the wrong usage. She thinks it should have been the "vessel" and I tend to agree with her. When I first played MoM, I always assumed it meant "vessel" and not "answer".

It's sounds cooler than "ability" by several miles that's (probably) why.
lul (slight bias mybes)

Too make ability sounds better as a word you could call it retro I guess.

RPGs almost always use special names for "ability" (like 'Arts', or 'Calibers' etc) to make it more immersive. They also use it to escape the "restraints" put on the word by the general public's casual understanding of it.

If you make up your own word or use a older word slightly out of context (there are other ways too) you can put your own meaning in there via inference, for said immersion.