I am not a Number! - Naming the Xth and XIVth

[Xin Ceithan]

While getting back into Death Guard mostly for 8th edition, I once again stumbled upon my mental roadblock what I was going to call them before they go naming themselves things like "Pnemonius the Rasping". I also struggle with giving them so some sort of "vibe". Coming from a storytelling perspective, I usually put a bit too much thought into things like this. But I am also fluffing out a DG faction for our groups Legion Wars Campaign, for which I am also looking to create an Iron Hands traitor war band.

Which brings us to this this thread ... how are seeing the main naming conventions or cultural roots of the Xth and the XIVth?

Initially, I am seeing some common ground in the Terran recruits. I am thinking mostly "harsh" and short names (Shadrak). No nonsense, matter of fact.

Given the Albia recruitment, are northern, Gael tendencies feasible? Could that be meshed with the Medusan techbarbarian clans? The VI has the Skandinavien/ Viking vibe covered...are medusian clans more Highlander in Space? What customs would a scavenger clan society endorse? I always liked those nuggets when the Doctor recognizes the ritual greeting of human diaspora descendants being derived from the check up routine of ancient environment suits. It's easy to picture something like that in Medusian lore.

 

For some reason the Death Guard always tend to bring out an Eastern European vibe in me, especially with the dark inhuman masters on the toxic mountain tops of Barbaros later on. But the eerie mountain top thing isn't limited to voivodes and chem-misted forests. Maybe their names and customs are more hushed, harsh whispers to avoid the ears of their overlords? Gestures and signs to communicate under breathing gear and ABC cloaks?

I have seen people playing with the Gurkha regiments set up elsewhere, which I have little more than passing knowledge of.

 

Both Legions come across as tough of nails, down to earth fighting forces. Their names and customs should reflect that.

 

So what are your thoughts on the names and cultures of these Legions?

[bluntblade]

Death Guard seem to go by Tolkien's Black Speech rule, picking harsh sounds. Durak Rask, Khorak, Morturg. Nathaniel Garro and Ullis Temeter are Terrans, and they suggest more English than Gaelic. To wit, Shadrak Meduson, born of Albia and not Medusa, changed his surname from Smythe.

 

As for the Iron Hands, I'm not sure. You have one Bion Henricos from Clan Sorrgol, which suggests a bit of Hispanic in the mix. Massacre's description posits that different groups arrived on Medusa over time. With genetic differences there probably come linguistic differences.

[Dagoth Ur]

While I am not an expert on Iron Hands design philosophy in terms of naming conventions, I do believe that there were quite a few mentions of them being at least partially inspired by gaelic culture, though maybe someone with more knowledge on this should chime in.

 

You strike a very interesting topic with the Death Guard, the Slavic theme I mean. As someone comming from the Balkans, I've always perceived both the Death Guard and the Iron Warriors (Bear with me on this one for a second) as having a very slavic, if underlying theme; however, typically Slavic names such as Ivan, Ivo, Goran, Edi, Ante (Short for Antonio), Marko, Petar/Pjotr, Misko/Mitja and so on and so forth, have always struck me as something the Iron Warriors would use. The Death Guard, on the other hand I imagine, would utilize phonetic conventions typical for eastern european languages instead of actual, real names; so a very hard, almost klicking, consonant-heavy language.

I can only speak for Croation, Serbian, Bosnian and Dalmatian here when I say that we definitely have a strong prevalence of K, Ž (The sound you get when you try to string Z and H together), Š (Sh as in Sheriff), R, D and the slew of other consonants we have specific letters for (Dž, Č, Ć, Đ, Nj, Lj). So while the Iron Warriors would usually just be called Legionnarie Borin/Ivan/Tomislav (maybe shorten to Toslav), the Death Guard would much rather utilize the phonetic conventions and create names such as Kardon, Darnuk, Galkodrun and similar. So, perhaps, as a help for the Death Guard names, maybe just try looking up videos on youtube in those languages and try piecing names together from the different syllabels you hear? (If you indeed desire to pursue that direction, I advise going with Polish, Tzech and Yugoslavian, as they, in my opinion, are a bit easier to follow for people who have no deeper knowledge of slavic languages; russian seems to be a tad more flowing and less "choppy").

The hazmat/ABC idea is actually quite genius and could also work out very well, as you could also tie in the clearly enunciated H that one sometimes finds in the Yugoslavian languages. You see, compared to many other languages (Such as germanic and latin stemming ones), Yugoslavian Languages (Serbian, Bosnian and Croatian as an example) speak like they write and write how they speak, which means that they do not "Swallow" sounds while reading and don't add letters you do not pornounce while speaking; so the Death Guard could also have names such as Nuhk, Ohdran, Ahrek etc.

Also, another good source for names would be to hit up a name-book or catalogue, take syllabels, jumble them around, or delete/replace them with other ones; so Vladislav turns into Vlahko.

As for cultures; we don't know that much about Barbarusan culture when compared to others, but I've always imagined them as very much marked by war and strife, very dour and hostile to the outside; something that has become a bit of a stereotype for us easterners (We talk loudly, each of us curses more than a whole ship of sailors, our languages sound harsh etc), and so I've always imagined them to speak some twisted, evolved amalgamation of slavic languages. It is certainly what I base my Death Guard on.

 

This is all probably a bit jumbled and without structure, but I hope that this was of some use to you. :)

[Xin Ceithan]

Thanks for the replies!

 

I try to avoid using actual 20th/ 21st Century names in games like 30K / 40K or ones that are too easily recognizable. But getting a general " feel" for the language of a place or a Legion ties the characters or squads together more, say, organically. Which isn't very Iron Hands...Which kind of relates my issue: naming across squads should feel organic for DG and mesh in synergetically for IH.

 

It is a shame we haven't seen much of the DG or their hi world so far. Or maybe not, depending on who is writing it. But I always get those HammerFilms, Coppola's Dracula, Van Helsing vibe when reading about it. With an extra helping of S.t.a.l.k.e.r.

 

The YouTube idea is neat...getting a feel for the sound of a language without getting bogged down with actual spelling/ grammar conventions should help a lot getting across the mental image of a place lost in space away from earth for thousand of years.

 

So, DG seems to be coming along fine....

 

Medusa seems a sort of Necromunda Underhive gang/ clans thingy...will have to give it another thought.

[bluntblade]

I can get you the other names from Path of Heaven and Blackshield in a little while

[Calas Typhon]

Time is short so i will keep it brief:

 

Terrans from both legions came mostly from Old Albia, naming schemes tended to be either Old English names or Anglo in nature. Amedeus Ducane, Shadrak (Smith) Meduson and Nathaniel Garro as examples. 

 

Iron Hands would fit really well with the Gaelic, Anglo Saxon naming theme.

 

Death Guard however, I can't really pin down a naming theme from any culture as it seems to be Harsh sounding mix and match. Rolling with Slavic first names sounds pretty great

Edited July 9, 2017 by Cthonia

[bluntblade]

OK, Path of Heaven gives us Marshal Gremus Kalgaro, Shipmaster Ulfar, Lagaahn and Trangh, Masters of Gunnery and the Watch respectively. In Blackshield we have the ship Ghogolla and the Stormbird Skarvor, Khorak, Hesch, Narag (mortal, but Barbarusian), Lyphas, Turgalla and Urgain. Edited July 10, 2017 by bluntblade

[Xin Ceithan]

Thanks!

With names like this, I have the sudden urge to dig up Native Klingon Audiobooks^^

 

Speaking of which, can someone recommend some YouTube videos for the Gael or Eastern European / Balkan languages, maybe something hobby related to narrow down the search engine parameters?