+ inload: The culture of Nocturne +

+ Prelude to Armageddon +

The wind brought the tang of chemicals. Even this far from Acheron, on the Deep Roads, the ash-desert surface was laced with production run-off. It gathered in the depressions, where lurid yellows, magentas and cyans had formed cleanly-distinguishable layers.

Elsewhere – including the rudimentary road along which Magnificence grumbled – the landscape was a uniform dirty grey-yellow. The sky was the same grey-yellow, tinted by a dirty haze. Through this haze a dirty white sun scowled unmercifully down on the convoy.

Four vehicles, a handful of outriders, and nothing else but dunes from horizon to horizon. 

Somewhere ahead – far ahead – was the Plutus river. The vast plain between Acheron and Infernus hives was not conventionally attractive, thought Numatone, whatever that aesthete Tarsidemi said about chem-rainbows at sunset. It was bleak here, with little to commend the outlands of Armageddon to anyone.

Numatone's thoughts darkened. Anyone but the gurm kenndh, that is. Damnable orks.

+++

+ Language and fantasy +

+ In the last inload, I listed the names of these marines, generated with a very cool name generator – go check it out! Musing further, I want to take the project beyond pure fantasy, and start to root the Salamanders into the broader Imperium a bit more. I've therefore appended the names with concepts, which  will be further developed. Perhaps these are the Salamanders' birth-names; some form of patronymic (or matronymic), or honour names – it'll be fun to find out. +

1. Nomix Nor'jargan – shja'eanh (courage)
2. Illor Hak'phast – aandh ngura (foresight)
3. Cassax Fo'ken – 'edalt (justice)
4. Adrak Ush'en – rhmt (mercy)
5. Vor'ord Grorn – mhbt(temperance)
6. Atanarian Sepor – khrdmnda (sagacity)
7. Typhak Numatone – brtra (supremacy)
8. Iaptane Greon – swd rsana (benificence)
9. V'reth Tarsidemi – mn'ekes kenndh (pensive)
10. Volkaeus Orurr – kewtah mzaj(short-tempered)
11. Skatar'tarro Clysis – ()
12. Mulbaku Numek – ()
13. Dakad Ka – ()

+ While I'm happy with pseudo-Latin names in places, I felt that this didn't really capture the Salamanders' peculiarities, so had a bit of a ponder. Eventually, I decided that sticking with the Classical period had an obvious alternative source – the Punic Wars. +

+ The Punic Wars were fought between the Carthaginians, a North African people who spoke Punic, a form of Persian. Alas, I have no arabic, so I've been doing a bit of a clunky multiple conversion – translating the English into Farsi with Google Translate, then using this useful tool to Romanise the text [+nooshericinloadlink embedded+] to make it render to an ignoramus like me. +

+ The results aren't going to fool any scholars, but that's not the intention. I simply want a non-Roman starting point that I can then develop; which I hope will result in a distinctive (if necessarily shallow) sense of a culture that's distinct from the broader Imperium. +

+ Since Salamanders are 'goodies', I started by listing fairly universal virtues like courage and mercy. Hiding virtues in the names seemed to make a nice little Easter egg. After a while, I swapped in some rather less attractive qualities to avoid me thinking of Salamanders as absolutely incorruptible. I want them to seem even-minded and virtuous, but not flawless. They are arguably the most human Chapter, and that allows for flaws and shortcomings, too. +

+ All the better, the Promethean Cult might suggest, for one to have hurdles to overcome... +

+ Finally, I've left some blank, to be filled in later. I find doing this helps to create a natural variety – some ideas come in a flood, others just need some fertile space to grow into. + 

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+ Painting is ticking over, as well. Worked a little more on the soft armour, and adding black to the boltguns. Details are starting to be picked out. +