+ inload: Adeptus Titanicus – Naming your Titan +

+ The Naming of Parts +

+ I've been feverishly working away at my Titans in order to get them finished in time for the release of the new edition of Adeptus Titanicus – a deadline always seems to help me for contained projects like this. As you'll see below, I've got the legs mostly done, bar some heraldic devices and banners that I intend to cover in another inload. +

+I met a traveller from an antique land,//Who said—“Two vast and trunkless legs of stone//Stand in the desert. . . . Near them, on the sand,//Half sunk a shattered visage lies, whose frown,//And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,//Tell that its sculptor well those passions read//Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,//The hand that mocked them, and the heart that fed;//And on the pedestal, these words appear://My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings;//Look on my Works, ye Mighty, and despair!//Nothing beside remains. Round the decay//Of that colossal Wreck, boundless and bare//The lone and level sands stretch far away.” +

Ozymandias, Percy Bysshe Shelley

+++

+ Theoretical +

+ I've given a rough outline of the painting below, but today I wanted to concentrate on something that I think there'll be a bit less guidance for, which is naming your Titans. +

+ To me, naming figures is not just a fun little addition, but a great way to help push your painting and modelling – even gaming – forward. That might sound a bit odd, but the underlying idea is that up an appropriate name will help spark some ideas for personalisation, or perhaps give you a starting point for how to differentiate your models in-game. +

+ Where to start? If you've chosen a 'canon' group – Iyanden Eldar, Khador etc. – you will likely have some examples of existing names. Riffing on those can give you some quick ideas; and if you recognise the underlying cultural inspiration, you'll be able to use baby naming books or guides on the noosphere. For example, many Blood Angels have names taken from Renaissance-period Italy, so looking up Italian baby names can help. Mixing in some names of mythological angels, from sites like this [+noosphericinloadlink embedded+], can also help. Real-world names give a little grounding, while fantastical names give that all-important flavour and interest. +

+ While naming like this can give good personal names for infantry, the system doesn't work so well for Titans. There is an existing and differentnaming convention for them: either cod-Latin High Gothic (such as Odius Trismegistus), or naval-style virtues/qualities (e.g. Indomitable). Working around those, then, is a good start. For the latter style, try looking up the names of warships through noospheric nodes like this [+noosphericinloadlink embedded+], or pick vessels from fiction, such as H. G. Wells' Thunderchild. +

+ When picking a High Gothic name, I think that the sound of it is more important than anything else. It's fine to get the syntax correct, but sometimes you'll get a punchier, more interesting name by playing fast and loose with the rules. Remember, High Gothic is not literally Latin; but a convention to simulate for us the archaic sound of it to the inhabitants of the far future. In general, I think the more pompous, the better. These Titans are godlike war engines, literally worshipped by their crews. +

+ A final consideration, when choosing a High Gothic name, is that sometimes its hard to know where to start. The simplest approach is to think of something cool in your native tongue, then translate it. While workable, I find that this can sometimes give rather generic, predictable names. If you'd like to try something else, but are stuck, try finding a theme. For the Fire Masters, for example, you might go with words that suggest flames, burning or destruction:

• Incandens
• Crematio Torrens
• Causa Vastities

+ For another Titan Maniple I'm planning, I've created my own Legio Sumer-Nikator, and have taken Sumerian/Diadochoi history as my theme. Most, but not all of these Titans are named after ancient battles:

• Ipsus Granicus
• Coropedion
• Tripolis Rex
• Hydaspes
• Codomannus

+ For those not directly named after a battle (Tripolis Rex, Ipsus Granicus), I've picked similar-sounding terms (geographical, here), so they fit with the theme. You don't have to stick with the theme rigidly, either. It'd be fine to slip in a Decimator or Silver Steed alongside them. In fact, I'd recommend you do. Variety is an important part of naming schemes. +

+ As a final point on naming Titans, remember that the theme is there to help you, not to restrict you. At root, you should pick names that you like. +

+ Naming my titans +

+ My Titan maniple is drawn from the Legio Praesagius, or 'True Messengers'. Using that as a starting point, I thought about messages; which led me to arguments – and I know there are some great Latin phrases for rhetorical devices. Having read English and Philosophy, the convention pleased me as a little tongue-in-cheek nod that's very appropriate for the retro-inspired Adeptus Titanicus. No harm in a little humour amongst the grim darkness of the far future; and if my Titans' names get an appreciative grin or two, that'd be brill. However, there's a difference between using a feather and a chicken, so I want to keep things fairly subtle – they should sound 'right', as described above. +

+ This Warlord is going to revel in the name Scesis Onamaton, which goes rather nicely with his multiple similar laser armaments. While a nice little in-joke, I hope you'll agree that it also sounds 'right' as a Titan name. +

+++

+ Practical +

+ The painting is fairly straightforward; a white built up from a slightly creamy mix – avoiding using large areas of pure white helps to create the sense of scale, by forcing the apparent highlights to the midtones – and a blue very similar to that used by my Ultramarines: Mordian blue base, with highlights of Russ/Space Wolf Grey and white added after shading down with Liche purple. +

+ Here's the top half perched on top, along with some menacing Word Bearers: