Hard Light Productions Forums
Modding, Mission Design, and Coding => The FRED Workshop => Topic started by: Vasudan Commander on January 25, 2007, 01:04:35 am
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I noticed that alot of campaigns are well made, but the names are unoriginal.
Ive taken the liberty of doing a bit of research, and i stumbled across this link. It has quite a number of ancient egyptian names, suited much to Vasudan ships.
If you'd like i can find more, and look for Terran suited ships as well.
http://www.geocities.com/wally_mo/names.html
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My trick, random article (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Random). Although it's sometimes more fun to pick a particular theme for the campaign and name ships and/or characters accordingly, such as picking names from a particular series of novels, or perhaps a Jutland analogue for example. A campaign i've got in the works takes some major themes from the Battle of Trafalgar, combining both names and vague events from that particular battle, and it still works quite seamlessly with the background of the Freespace 'verse.
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Here's the site I use for names. http://www.20000-names.com/ (http://www.20000-names.com/)
I tend to go with the standard naming convention for most FS2 ships. The exception being installations and non-military forces. For instance, in Dissident Theory the name of the cruiser is Aleron, a French word meaning "Knight", and the installations I usually give fort or territory or even old heroic names like Boone or Yukon. Its fun to mix and match a bit with the non-military ships.
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Except for certain exemptions (WW1/2 ships, places, pop-culture references, appropriate nouns or verbs), I rely upon www.pantheon.org. Pretty much everything I've planned uses highly symbolical names.
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i use my imagination for names.
GTD Jarthos
NTD Reeves
NTC Gailloposo
GTD Nazath
GTCv Lighsiga
etc.
for other named ships like vasudans, i use an eygptian overhead map for names.
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Except for certain exemptions (WW1/2 ships, places, pop-culture references, appropriate nouns or verbs), I rely upon www.pantheon.org. Pretty much everything I've planned uses highly symbolical names.
I use the same source for most of my names, although I usually don't pay attention to the meanings.
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Look on the back of a dvd and grab some names from the credits.
Oh, and, Von Braun & Rickenbacker ;)
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Greek_mythological_characters
This? These are good. Shivan names can be:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_hindu_gods
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_demons
For Vasudans:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Egyptian_deities
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Egyptian_goddesses
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Egyptian_gods
Do not use Qetesh. It is the god of sex. :P
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Do not use Qetesh. It is the god of sex. :P
Ransom used that one. It was a bizarre scavenging transport in Sync.
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Do not use Qetesh. It is the god of sex. :P
Too late, I think somebody already did.
FSPort has a couple of sites listed for obtaining Shivan and Vasudan names in their links section, which I've tended to rely on. I've been playing off national rivalries by naming NTF ships for French warships and GTVA ones for British when they appear opposite each other.
I still haven't found a decent list of Minoan names, so I've had to invent a whole new scheme for Ancients ships.
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What would that be?
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Wikipedia is reliable for Egyptian mythology, for the Vasudans. They also have a good long list of mythological demons from a dozen different historical traditions that's quite useful (especially since Shivan ships take their names and classes from demons of all faiths - it was interesting reading up on some of the names that appear in FS2). Terran ships are a bit of a pain - their classes come from Greek mythology, but the names are derived from dozens of different traditions. Off the top of my head...
-Lucidity, derived from lucid, clear, etc. No mythological or literary connection.
-Lysander / Actium - Shakespeare
-Aquitaine - A region in France
-Bastion - reference to a fortress/stronghold
-Enif Station - named after the star, presumably. Greek letter.
-Warspite - British battleship (Both World Wars)
And the list goes on...
Terran ship names seem to hint at mission outcomes and occurrences, often named as analogies or after similar historical events, places, people, things... That's about as much rhyme or reason I can generate from them. Even the NTF ships are pretty good examples of this, the Iceni being the classic example (the Iceni were a very successful tribe in pre-Roman Britain).
To answer the original question though, I generally stick to the historical context for Terran ships, and rely heavily on Greek mythological figures (Gods and otherwise).
And on a side note, anyone know a FREDer who'd be interest in compiling a pre-written and "screenplayed" campaign?
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What would that be?
Religious, which helps establish a background with their society. Also trying to include a thematic link in the names between a group flagship and the other ships.
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-Lucidity, derived from lucid, clear, etc. No mythological or literary connection.
haha, never thought about it that way, but it sure makes alot of sense. That mission was hella easy with the AWACS there.
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Do not use Qetesh. It is the god of sex. :P
Uggh. I'm positive one campaign had a shivan cruiser named Yoni... Could it have been Warzone?... Anyway, it cracked me up when I saw it.
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Derelict uses Cthulhu mythos names for Shivan ships, such as Nyarlathotep. They work rather fine IMO, and there's a whoel bunch of them in Wikipedia. Other fictional mythologies such as Middle-earth mythologies (GTD Ilúvatar, )
For Terran ships, regions of Earth are always a safe bet. True, it's used in many scifi universes but it just makes sense and the ship names are believable that way, so I don't see any reason why it shouldn't or couldn't be used in FS2 universe too. Another good source for terran ship names is obviously current navy warship names of different nationalities. And several mythologies also offer quite a bit of interesting ways to include hidden references and stuff like that. Using names from Irish mythology, Norse, German, Gaul, Indo-European, Sanskrit, Kalevala, perhaps even North American or Australian aborigine mythologies could be plausible - and certainly Christian mythos also offers a whole bunch of name candidates, but using for example names of archangels for Elysium transports might not suite the context - then again, it could be a hidden reference to something from behalf of the campaign maker. But names such as GTD Daghda, Belenos or Cúchulainn just beg to be used.
And there's also the method of picking random words of some rare or fictional language (such as Sindarin, Finnish, Quenya and whatever you can think of). If it sounds good it usually passes, but it might be best to at least try and check the meaning of the word, though. Naming a destroyer GTD Ohramallas or GTC Humala might sound almost plausible to an english speaker, but for those who know Finnish they might cause slight amused chuckles. From English words, tere are some obvious adjectives and nouns that pass well as ship names, too - such as Impedance,
Famous people's names are excellent for Terran craft too. Science cruisers seem to be using that naming scheme a lot, but I don't see why it couldn't be used in other ships as well. Perhaps famous artists, writers and composers could work best as civilian ships - passenger liners and such.
Using only one kind of naming scheme throughout a campaign might become a little boring, so I guess it's best to use all kinds of name inventing strategies. The more variety the better in my opinion.
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Famous people's names are excellent for Terran craft too. Science cruisers seem to be using that naming scheme a lot, but I don't see why it couldn't be used in other ships as well. Perhaps famous artists, writers and composers could work best as civilian ships - passenger liners and such.
In FS2 they are used also on military ships: GTD Delacroix and GTC Congreve, for example.
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Cool just say some of the names where do they come and what do they mean! :D I think i will use some of them! :)
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eug%C3%A8ne_Delacroix - Eugene Delacroix, French painter whose paintings include romantic, Revolution themed one (seems a bit odd... until perhaps you consider the painter Bosch (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hieronymus_Bosch)...)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Congreve - Congreve - either William La Touche Congreve (WW1 Victoria cross - probably unlikely due to obscurity), William Congreve (inventor - of rockets) or William Congreve (playright and poet)
:)
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For Shivan ships I often use something sinister sounding or enigmatic, such as Dzul or Sorzam, or i use villans from novels or games (Voldemort, or Nergal)
For Terran stuff I often use American Civil War, WW2 or Greek and Roman references, and something egyptian sounding for Vasudans.
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I tend to use vaguely nasty-sound names for a lot of Shivan ships too. I named a set of four destroyers for the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, for example. Cruisers tend to recieve more obscure names simply because there are more of them, but corvettes get things like "Corrupter", "Ravager", or "Woe".
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I occasionally use villainous D+D deities for Shivan warships, but I usually just stick with evil things in general.
Occasionally I will intentionally reuse a ship name for comic effect. :D
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SD George W. Bush
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Derelict uses Cthulhu mythos names for Shivan ships, such as Nyarlathotep. They work rather fine IMO, and there's a whoel bunch of them in Wikipedia. Other fictional mythologies such as Middle-earth mythologies (GTD Ilúvatar, )
*cringe*
I hate naming ships after the most famous namesakes. The GSC Einstein, for example. The Lucifer was fine because it was the most prominent and deadly ship. Ilúvatar, being the creator god and all, seems a bit over-the-top to me. I also didn't like seeing the Cthulhu actually appearing in Derelict. Would you actually ever name a ship the HMS God? Or how about the USS Buddha?
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SD George W. Bush
NO!!! NOT IN THIS SYSTEM TOO!!! :nervous:
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*cringe*
I hate naming ships after the most famous namesakes. The GSC Einstein, for example. The Lucifer was fine because it was the most prominent and deadly ship. Ilúvatar, being the creator god and all, seems a bit over-the-top to me. I also didn't like seeing the Cthulhu actually appearing in Derelict. Would you actually ever name a ship the HMS God? Or how about the USS Buddha?
Haha.. :lol:
Meh, Ilúvatar is a fictional deity. And while we have Zeus (a supreme god of Greek pantheon, though not necessarily creator of world), Athena and Artemis as bombers, I don't think throwing fictional deities into the mix can make it any worse (if you consider it a bad thing in the first place). Not to mention Hindu deities. Who would actually use the name "Shivans"... oh wait. :lol:
And we have a Titan (namely Cyclops) as a missile, as well as god of Sun (Helios) in the same role.. and the bringer of fire to humanity (Prometheus) whose liver is every day eaten by an eagle and regenerates at night as a primary weapon.
It's true however that most famous namesakes can get a little boring after a while. Perhaps I wouldn't use Eru Ilúvatar's name as a ship name, but choose some of the lesser Valar - there's enough of them to spare.
...Did Cthulhu himself actually appear in the Derelict as a name of a ship? I don't remember... Seems I have to re-play it. :D
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As long as no one makes a ship/wing called the Sisyphus, we'll all be alright. Though in the first Awakenings mission it feels like your wing name SHOULD be Sisyphus.
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I think you can find the GTD Urethra in the closing missions of "The Enemies Return".... I dont remember if i changed it or not. Even if the ships name is changed, I'm sure breifings or ingame message make reference to the penis-referencing Hecate. I'm inconsistant like that. :p
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I'm tempted to take up that suggestion from my 13 common FREDding mistakes thread and have a wing of Dragons called Cockmonger :D
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Haha.. :lol:
Meh, Ilúvatar is a fictional deity. And while we have Zeus (a supreme god of Greek pantheon, though not necessarily creator of world), Athena and Artemis as bombers, I don't think throwing fictional deities into the mix can make it any worse (if you consider it a bad thing in the first place). Not to mention Hindu deities. Who would actually use the name "Shivans"... oh wait. :lol:
And we have a Titan (namely Cyclops) as a missile, as well as god of Sun (Helios) in the same role.. and the bringer of fire to humanity (Prometheus) whose liver is every day eaten by an eagle and regenerates at night as a primary weapon.
It's true however that most famous namesakes can get a little boring after a while. Perhaps I wouldn't use Eru Ilúvatar's name as a ship name, but choose some of the lesser Valar - there's enough of them to spare.
...Did Cthulhu himself actually appear in the Derelict as a name of a ship? I don't remember... Seems I have to re-play it. :D
Well, some of the other Valar would be good. I completely forgot about Zeus, but I meant as specific ships, not entire classes. Cthulhu did indeed appear, as a cruiser if memory serves.
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I must admit, I'm not being too original with the naming of my ships. I've chosen Icarus and Daedelus (though there are parallels between the myth and the campaign) as my destroyers. The corvette is the Draconia. Ah well, we'll see the response when the campaign's released.
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I tend to use names of battleships and such for terran destroyers aswell as the names of such ships that has appeared in the FS2 campaign (And wasent destroyed).
As for shivan and Vasudan ships I use Freespace2 wiki for that but now that all of you have posted such good link I might have to change that.
/Dice
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As long as no one makes a ship/wing called the Sisyphus, we'll all be alright. Though in the first Awakenings mission it feels like your wing name SHOULD be Sisyphus.
Actually there IS a ship called Sisyphus on Hades Combine (well, it's Sizifus, but that's almost the same). :D
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Derelict uses Cthulhu mythos names for Shivan ships, such as Nyarlathotep. They work rather fine IMO, and there's a whoel bunch of them in Wikipedia. Other fictional mythologies such as Middle-earth mythologies (GTD Ilúvatar, )
*cringe*
I hate naming ships after the most famous namesakes. The GSC Einstein, for example. The Lucifer was fine because it was the most prominent and deadly ship. Ilúvatar, being the creator god and all, seems a bit over-the-top to me. I also didn't like seeing the Cthulhu actually appearing in Derelict. Would you actually ever name a ship the HMS God? Or how about the USS Buddha?
Albeit if you've never ever ever heard the name 'Ilúvatar', then it just sounds clunky.
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Which would, I believe, include all the people who haven't read Silmarillion or otherwise familiar with Tolkien legendarium. :cool:
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legendarium.
I'm pretty sure you just made that word up :P
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Quite the opposite.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legendarium (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legendarium)
;7
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I use either some mythological names (Gorgon, Titan, Archangel)or real-world ship names(Iowa, Repulse, Hood), or just some cool sounding names(Cobra, Retribution, Warmonger, Whitehall)
or I make my own (using tolkien elvish :D) - Aeglos, Nareas
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Quite the opposite.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legendarium (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legendarium)
;7
Well I'll be... I learned something new today. :)
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It's Illùvatar, not Ilùvatar.
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I beg to differ. :) Not that it matters that much, but it is Ilúvatar with single small "L" in it.
Obviously, the translitteration from who knows which artificial language (probably Qenya) to 20th century English might be a little... un-accurate despite Tolkien's best efforts. :p
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I use either some mythological names (Gorgon, Titan, Archangel)or real-world ship names(Iowa, Repulse, Hood), or just some cool sounding names(Cobra, Retribution, Warmonger, Whitehall)
or I make my own (using tolkien elvish :D) - Aeglos, Nareas
Whitehall was actually a large palace in English history.
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I cant believe no one has used the Gryphon / Griffon / Griffin. It is one of the most powerful, proud, and honorable mythological creatures. The half eagle represents intelligence, speed, and cunning, and the half lion represents strength, courage and pride. If they can use the Pegasus , which is just a horse with wings (kinda pansy if u ask me), then why not use a gryphon?
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It has been used, one of aldo's old cruisers did.
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It has been used, one of aldo's old cruisers did.
Which is ripe for a remake, actually ;)
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I cant believe no one has used the Gryphon / Griffon / Griffin. It is one of the most powerful, proud, and honorable mythological creatures. The half eagle represents intelligence, speed, and cunning, and the half lion represents strength, courage and pride. If they can use the Pegasus , which is just a horse with wings (kinda pansy if u ask me), then why not use a gryphon?
MT uses the name Gryphon.
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I cant believe no one has used the Gryphon / Griffon / Griffin. It is one of the most powerful, proud, and honorable mythological creatures. The half eagle represents intelligence, speed, and cunning, and the half lion represents strength, courage and pride. If they can use the Pegasus , which is just a horse with wings (kinda pansy if u ask me), then why not use a gryphon?
Pegasus was a proud and honorable horse. Griffins are stuck-up. There, I said it.
Oh, and in real life, mashing bits of things together because it looks cool rarely works out.
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I dunno. Look at the platypus.
:D
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Mad Bomber: I think you hace just proved Agent_koopa's point. Mashing the bits of the Platypus together just becuase it sounds cool, results in a particularly ugly creatures, that is limited to a very small habitat.
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That is true for models, actually. Go look at some of Woo's earlier things, such as his Sekhat-Tor (Aten with Sobek head grafted on).
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The Icelus doesn't look half-bad, and it's just a Hecate with a remodeled engine section.
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Starbug did that one.
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I cant believe no one has used the Gryphon / Griffon / Griffin. It is one of the most powerful, proud, and honorable mythological creatures. The half eagle represents intelligence, speed, and cunning, and the half lion represents strength, courage and pride. If they can use the Pegasus , which is just a horse with wings (kinda pansy if u ask me), then why not use a gryphon?
Pegasus was a proud and honorable horse. Griffins are stuck-up. There, I said it.
Pffffft. Yea right. Grifffins are the most powerful mythological creatures ever. The intelligence, speed, and cunning of an eagle, and the courgage, strength and ferocity of a lion. They are the perfect creatures. Dragons have NOTHING on them. Thats why in ancient greek mythlogy, gryphons pulled the chariot of the gods, and why they guarded the fabled 'golden mountain' on Crete. Dragons are pathetic overgrown lizards. And Pegasi are pathetic pansy horses. They have no sort of fighting capability. A gryphon can be ridden, and it can fight.
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:wtf:
What a strange argument.
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And Pegasi are pathetic pansy horses. They have no sort of fighting capability.
You think horses have no fighting capability (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_horse)? :nervous:
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Pffffft. Yea right. Grifffins are the most powerful mythological creatures ever. The intelligence, speed, and cunning of an eagle, and the courgage, strength and ferocity of a lion. They are the perfect creatures. Dragons have NOTHING on them. Thats why in ancient greek mythlogy, gryphons pulled the chariot of the gods, and why they guarded the fabled 'golden mountain' on Crete. Dragons are pathetic overgrown lizards. And Pegasi are pathetic pansy horses. They have no sort of fighting capability. A gryphon can be ridden, and it can fight.
Yes... right. I'd ask how the hell you know this unless we weren't talking about mythological creatures. A most intriguing argument, I must admit.
Another sources of nice names are cities and other real-life locations. SD Etna, GVD Vantaa ( ;7), anyone
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GTI Versailles? ;7
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I cant believe no one has used the Gryphon / Griffon / Griffin. It is one of the most powerful, proud, and honorable mythological creatures. The half eagle represents intelligence, speed, and cunning, and the half lion represents strength, courage and pride. If they can use the Pegasus , which is just a horse with wings (kinda pansy if u ask me), then why not use a gryphon?
Pegasus was a proud and honorable horse. Griffins are stuck-up. There, I said it.
Pffffft. Yea right. Grifffins are the most powerful mythological creatures ever. The intelligence, speed, and cunning of an eagle, and the courgage, strength and ferocity of a lion. They are the perfect creatures. Dragons have NOTHING on them. Thats why in ancient greek mythlogy, gryphons pulled the chariot of the gods, and why they guarded the fabled 'golden mountain' on Crete. Dragons are pathetic overgrown lizards. And Pegasi are pathetic pansy horses. They have no sort of fighting capability. A gryphon can be ridden, and it can fight.
Pegasus was ridden by the hero Bellerophon to defeat the monster Chimaera, as well as during a slew of other adventures.
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Sweet rocking Jesus. You're talking about how Griffons are better than ponies now. :wtf:
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Anyone who thinks horses can't fight has clearly never been kicked in the face by one.
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Pffffft. Yea right. Grifffins are the most powerful mythological creatures ever. The intelligence, speed, and cunning of an eagle, and the courgage, strength and ferocity of a lion. They are the perfect creatures. Dragons have NOTHING on them. Thats why in ancient greek mythlogy, gryphons pulled the chariot of the gods, and why they guarded the fabled 'golden mountain' on Crete. Dragons are pathetic overgrown lizards. And Pegasi are pathetic pansy horses. They have no sort of fighting capability. A gryphon can be ridden, and it can fight.
Bah..they would be owned by the best mithological creature ever.. PHOENIX...that dudes on fire..literary.. and can come back from the dead. It would prove to be "too hot to handle" for a measly griffin :D
You think horses have no fighting capability?
A 1000kg horse! Hall, it's easy to understand why knights were so feared.. DAMN!
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Pffffft. Yea right. Grifffins are the most powerful mythological creatures ever. The intelligence, speed, and cunning of an eagle, and the courgage, strength and ferocity of a lion. They are the perfect creatures. Dragons have NOTHING on them. Thats why in ancient greek mythlogy, gryphons pulled the chariot of the gods, and why they guarded the fabled 'golden mountain' on Crete. Dragons are pathetic overgrown lizards. And Pegasi are pathetic pansy horses. They have no sort of fighting capability. A gryphon can be ridden, and it can fight.
Bah..they would be owned by the best mithological creature ever.. PHOENIX...that dudes on fire..literary.. and can come back from the dead. It would prove to be "too hot to handle" for a measly griffin :D
http://www.pantheon.org/articles/p/phoenix.html
In ancient Greek and Egyptian mythology, the phoenix is a mythical bird and associated with the Egyptian sun-god Re and the Greek Phoibos (Apollo). According to the Greeks the bird lives in Arabia, nearby a cool well. Each morning at dawn, it would bathe in the water and sing such a beautiful song, that the sun-god stops his chariot to listen. There exists only one phoenix at the time.
When it felt its death approaching (every 500 or 1461 years), it would build a nest of aromatic wood and set it on fire, and was consumed by the flames. When it was burned, a new phoenix sprang forth from the pyre. It then embalmed the ashes of its predecessor in an egg of myrrh and flew with it to Heliopolis ("city of the sun"). There it would deposit the egg on the altar of the sun god.
In Egypt is was usually depicted as a heron, but in the classic literature as a peacock, or an eagle. The phoenix symbolizes immortality, resurrection, and life after death. In that aspect it was often placed on sarcophagi. It is associated with the Egyptian Benu, the Garuda of the Hindus, and the Chinese Feng-huang.
Judaic lore mentions that the phoenix achieved its unique status as an immortal bird because it refrained from bothering the overburdened Noah during the Flood voyage (Sanh. 108b).
Whoo, sounds a right hardass.
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So? That's not the only take on the phoenix...there are many others.
Even seen Conan (the cartoon)? Ever played Heroes of Might and Magic? etc...
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So? That's not the only take on the phoenix...there are many others.
Even seen Conan (the cartoon)? Ever played Heroes of Might and Magic? etc...
It's the true mythology of the phoenix; anything else is simply making stuff up, and you can apply that logic equally to any mythology. So really, what you're saying is that it's not the 'best mythological creature ever', but the best fictional creature ever....
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There are many different versions of ALL these mythological creatures.
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I thought mythology was all about making stuff up. It just has to be made up long enough time ago.
Boy, if our civilization and history gets forgotten in a worldwide conflict or something like that, I wonder what the mythologists of the future will think about the few possible remnants of all the Marvel comics... :lol:
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"Their religion must've been stupid."
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No, they will tink that if they come across some leftover Scientology materials....
If tehy come across comics tehy will prolyl think: "The people must have been crazy to preform so many epicly catastrophic experiments and leave so many mutating chemichals around!"
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Griffin was the original name of what later became the Orc, right?
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Nope. The Orc originally looked like a mini-Deimos. The Gryphon is blocky, mounts a ventral hangar, and has lots of multipart turrets.
The redone Orc (which was AGAIN redone as the larger Blade by someone else later on) does not mount a hangar and has a very different design (much less blocky than the Gryphon I might add).
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Stick to historical references and mythology.
Shivan names are generally best if from the darker aspects of Hinduism and the Abhrahamaic traditions a little Zoroastraisim helps too.
For the Vasudans Egyptian mythology.
For the Terrans Greek, Roman, Norse and historical places/names/events work best. The more obscure the better and more ironically tied to the mission the better.
The "SD Xenu" "SD Cthulhu" and "SD Sauron" are not good examples of names. (I cringe every time Lovecraft or Tolkein is used, and black out whenever things like 'Voldemort' or 'Vader' are used as its even worse) Nor is randomly tossing together letters to make something that 'sounds good.'
Pick things that add depth to the missions and add another side to them. Something that seems straightforward can be made sinister by names referencing to something similar but different enough.
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We do not know which names the humanity will use...names that come from books edited in the past century might look recent...only for us.
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The redone Orc (which was AGAIN redone as the larger Blade by someone else later on) does not mount a hangar and has a very different design (much less blocky than the Gryphon I might add).
That someone else would be me.
Stick to historical references and mythology.
Shivan names are generally best if from the darker aspects of Hinduism and the Abhrahamaic traditions a little Zoroastraisim helps too.
For the Vasudans Egyptian mythology.
For the Terrans Greek, Roman, Norse and historical places/names/events work best. The more obscure the better and more ironically tied to the mission the better.
The "SD Xenu" "SD Cthulhu" and "SD Sauron" are not good examples of names. (I cringe every time Lovecraft or Tolkein is used, and black out whenever things like 'Voldemort' or 'Vader' are used as its even worse) Nor is randomly tossing together letters to make something that 'sounds good.'
Pick things that add depth to the missions and add another side to them. Something that seems straightforward can be made sinister by names referencing to something similar but different enough.
Does it even sound realistic to have all ships of a race have their names from a narrow source? What, do all ships get names by a single person? I would think, that like in the normal world, ships would be named after anyone or anything :D
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Using only Egyptian mythology greatly limits your naming options. Pharaohs and cities have canon examples (GVC Mycerinus for instance -- which is the Greekified version of 'Menkaure' IIRC), and even things from neighboring Libya and Nubia could to be acceptable, too, I think.
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Mad Bomber: Yup. Just think about the Hyksos.
Vasudan Commander: The Gryphon is better than the Dragon? Don't make me malugh, don't...make...me...ahahahahhaha!!!
I named two Orc cruisers....Scinfaxi and Hrimfaxi, monitored by the AWACS Blue Hound...eh eh...