Scout Sergeant name? Blood Angels heads variants?

[Ranwulf]

Hi guys,

 

I've been giving my characters some special names and stories to make me care more about them. I am also seeking new ways to give my sergeants a different look, mostly cause the DC heads all look a like.

 

My Scout Sergeant is named Elijah. Basically he seeks to break the connection that the initiates have with their old life on Baal. This is a reference to the Prophet Elijah that actually did the same thing to the god Baal in exchange of Yeweh. Also apparently he also became an angel later.

 

What you think? Does it seems like a good idea for Scout Sergeant name?

 

Now, about the heads. I am thinking about using the High Elves heads (those without helmets), because they would give my characters an interesting look while staying "angelic" more or less. 

 

What you think? Could you suggest different heads?

 

Ran

[Blindhamster]

high elf heads are too slender, they're cool but not very marine-y 

 

theres a few good ones in the empire greatswords box though!

[Squirrelloid]

Blood Angel names are kind of all over the place.  Mephiston has a greek base.  Dante is obviously italian.  Lemartes looks latin, and Corbulo definitely is (Roman general, there's at least one military academy named for him). Ba'al, the chapter homeworld, is from Phoenician, a semitic language.   Similarly, Astorath is a masculine variant of Astarte, a semitic goddess. (See Ashtorath in the Bible, another masculinization of Astarte because the book it occurs in is so anti-women it won't even admit the foreign god worshipped by the israelis is a woman).  Tycho is... I got nothing other than the astronomer, and I don't even know what language that is.  (His danish birthname is Tyge, thanks wikipedia, which means its probably latin? probably?)

Anyway, going with any classical language looks like a safe bet, so Hebrew works just fine as far as I'm concerned.

 

(At one point I chose to name all my characters with Sumerian names, and let me tell you, those were a mouthful.  On the plus side, if you can learn sumerian characters, and it isn't that hard with online resources, those things aren't terribly hard with paint-brushes, but I never got that far.)

[Xenith]

Mephiston has a greek base.  

 

Similarly, Astorath is a masculine variant of Astarte, a semitic goddess.

 

(See Ashtorath in the Bible, another masculinization of Astarte because the book it occurs in is so anti-women it won't even admit the foreign god worshipped by the israelis is a woman).

 

Tycho is... I got nothing other than the astronomer, and I don't even know what language that is.  (His danish birthname is Tyge, thanks wikipedia, which means its probably latin? probably?)

 

Mephiston I thought was after Mephistopheles, a demon who makes bargains for great power (echo of Mephiston's rise to power???)

 

Astorath is more likely Astaroth http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astaroth a demon, prince of hell.

 

Dante - after the inferno, dealing with hell and such.

 

Tycho - after Tycho brahe, an astronomer who was disfigured and covered it up with a metal replacement (sound familiar?)

 

Although the captain was called tycho in the initial battle report before he was 'killed in action'.

 

Captain Machiavel (BA Codex) from Machiavelli

 

Generally look to renaissance period Italian names, artists, sculptors, writers, etc. Debase them as needed (Machivelli to Machiavel)

[Wulfebane]

I agree with Xenith, and their more ornate/artisan armor always felt like something out of the baroque or rococo periods which were at the tail end of the Renaissance. For me, that sort of drives the whole vibe home.

[Black_Sky]

If you do not have a sergeant named Bob, you must name your sergeant Bob. This is a law of the universe, and not even the forces of Chaos can break it.

 

Otherwise the Italian renaissance provides a host of great names, as Xenith stated.

[Xenith]

If you do not have a sergeant named Bob, you must name your sergeant Bob.

 

Due to the style over substance nature of Italians, the great artistic works of Penne d'Bob Rigatoni never really came to light, being overshadowed by the less talented likes of Dante and Machiavelli.

 

Bob is still a valid name for a squad sergeant.

[Boomkapow]

I named all my blood angels off of people on this forum. Sorry Xenith, you're a scout with a shotgun. Hahahahahaha

[Taranis]

I named all my blood angels off of people on this forum. Sorry Xenith, you're a scout with a shotgun. Hahahahahaha

Dangerous secret! Now everybody wonders what they are and all who isn't chaptermaster of a well described and well respected successor chapter will be sharpening their blades.......

 

If anybody asks then we are all Chaptermasters....

Lol :)

[Xenith]

I named all my blood angels off of people on this forum. Sorry Xenith, you're a scout with a shotgun. Hahahahahaha

 

Haha, I wouldn't be anything else. Maybe a tactical marine.

[Memento Of Prospero]

I think we all know the obvious answer to your question is to give him long blond hair and call him Fabio, because he is silky smooth.

[I am Legion]

Did....you.....you know?.....name someone after me? *space puppy eyes*

[Squirrelloid]

 

 

Mephiston has a greek base.

 

Similarly, Astorath is a masculine variant of Astarte, a semitic goddess.

 

(See Ashtorath in the Bible, another masculinization of Astarte because the book it occurs in is so anti-women it won't even admit the foreign god worshipped by the israelis is a woman).

 

Tycho is... I got nothing other than the astronomer, and I don't even know what language that is. (His danish birthname is Tyge, thanks wikipedia, which means its probably latin? probably?)

Mephiston I thought was after Mephistopheles, a demon who makes bargains for great power (echo of Mephiston's rise to power???)

 

Astorath is more likely Astaroth http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astaroth a demon, prince of hell.

 

Dante - after the inferno, dealing with hell and such.

 

Tycho - after Tycho brahe, an astronomer who was disfigured and covered it up with a metal replacement (sound familiar?)

 

Although the captain was called tycho in the initial battle report before he was 'killed in action'.

 

Captain Machiavel (BA Codex) from Machiavelli

 

Generally look to renaissance period Italian names, artists, sculptors, writers, etc. Debase them as needed (Machivelli to Machiavel)

And Mephistopholes, the 'demon', is from Greek, so... your point? (You can tell by the 'ph', its a pretty dead giveaway).

 

Similarly, the demon Astaroth is from the biblical Ashtorath, and still has a semitic, probably phoenician, origin.

 

After deeper investigation, Lemartes is more complicated. "Martes" is the marten genus, and also the latin noun for marten (irregular noun, germanic origin, feminine!). But "le" isn't a valid participle in latin - it is however in french. French is martre, feminine marte. So the feminine plural would be martes, but le is masculine and singular. So its not a valid french construction either. I think it wants to be 'The Weasel' (Martens being in the weasel family, and martes probably sounded cooler), but its a total language fail, probably some weird mixture of french and latin, and a gender fail regardless. What it's not: Italian (martora, and 'le' isn't a valid participle here either).

 

It doesn't matter what the proximal inspiration was, the linguistic roots go back to all over the classical mediterranean. Only Dante is more recent, and is still a descendant language (and from one on the Mediterranean no less).

[Judaz]

My guess is that Lemartes is a name derived from muerte (spanish) and mort (french), not weasel, since he is a member of Death Company and master of the black rage.

[knife&fork]

Seconding Empire heads. Tons of good heads in many sets. 

[Squirrelloid]

My guess is that Lemartes is a name derived from muerte (spanish) and mort (french), not weasel, since he is a member of Death Company and master of the black rage.

 

Based on what?  Muerte and mort aren't anywhere close to martes.  (Nor does going to spanish help at all, it just adds another language that's incompatible with the participle).

 

The Weasel has connotations of craftiness and viciousness.  It feels quite plausible, and it is actually supported by some language, even if GW can't manage to get gender or singular/plural right.

[Astral Pathfinder]

http://www.20000-names.com is good to find names with meaning + origin.

[Judaz]

 

My guess is that Lemartes is a name derived from muerte (spanish) and mort (french), not weasel, since he is a member of Death Company and master of the black rage.

 

Based on what?  Muerte and mort aren't anywhere close to martes.  (Nor does going to spanish help at all, it just adds another language that's incompatible with the participle).

 

The Weasel has connotations of craftiness and viciousness.  It feels quite plausible, and it is actually supported by some language, even if GW can't manage to get gender or singular/plural right.

Based on the rule of cool.

[Xenith]

 

My guess is that Lemartes is a name derived from muerte (spanish) and mort (french), not weasel, since he is a member of Death Company and master of the black rage.

 

Based on what?  Muerte and mort aren't anywhere close to martes.  

 

Mort. Mart. Seem pretty close to me. At least as close to Martes as Marten.

 

I think they would probably choose a debasement of a word meaning death, than a word meaning weasel.

[Squirrelloid]

 

 

My guess is that Lemartes is a name derived from muerte (spanish) and mort (french), not weasel, since he is a member of Death Company and master of the black rage.

 

Based on what?  Muerte and mort aren't anywhere close to martes.  

 

Mort. Mart. Seem pretty close to me. At least as close to Martes as Marten.

 

I think they would probably choose a debasement of a word meaning death, than a word meaning weasel.

 

Except Martes actually does mean Marten.  (Martes is latin for marten, and is used as the actual genus name for them.  Martes is also the french feminine plural for marten: marte + s).

 

Mort and Mart aren't actually close to each other at all, and it isn't Mart, its Martes.  Since we're already accepting a plural fail, the singular is still Marte.  The plural of Mort is Morts.  That's not a minor difference, that's a big deal linguistically.  Mort and Marte come from totally different root words and could not be derived from each other.

[Xenith]

Mort and Mart aren't actually close to each other at all, and it isn't Mart, its Martes.  Since we're already accepting a plural fail, the singular is still Marte.  The plural of Mort is Morts.  That's not a minor difference, that's a big deal linguistically.  Mort and Marte come from totally different root words and could not be derived from each other.

 

I'm not debating the roots of the words, in which you have much greater knowledge than I. You're thinking about this from a purely linguistic point of view, however, which only gets you so far.

 

Staff see a word that's awesome and maybe has some relevance, and theneither leave it as is, or change some letters around, so it sounds the same, but is different enough. I this respect Mort and Mart (or indeed Muertes/Martes) are exceptionally close, only 1-2 vowels different, in fact.

 

c.f. tiqtaq-to, tenhi-huini, Angron, Perturabo, Rogal, etc.

 

Remember, this is the grim darkness of the far future where language has evolved into bastardised versions of modern day language.

 

Anyway, I've said enough on that. Regarding  the OP, I think HE heads would work well on BA scouts. Normal marine heads are a bit...too big for scout torsos....

 

I've seen the HE mage head with the whippy hair on a BA captain before and it looked ace.