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Hey all. Yeh, about the Iron Hands, is there any society or culture both present or ancient that the Iron Hands might lend themselves to when it comes to their names? By this I mean in the way Dark Angels are Gothic, Ultramarines are Roman, Space Wolves Norse, Thousand Sons Egyptian, Blood Angels Italian and so on and so on. I find it hard making my own names for these guys so I was wondering if there was any culture I could look to for inspiration or if after all it is just a completely custom job.

crimson

There are several Iron Hands named here:
http://wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/Iron_Hands#Notable_Members

I hope that helps!

I've always thought of the iron hands as having a Celtic theme; the obsession with iron and names like 'Bannus' etc. i also remember reading somewhere that the tribes of Medusa are known for their intricate tattoos but i can't remember the source for that particular one...

Shane wrote:There are several Iron Hands named here:
http://wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/Iron_Hands#Notable_Members

I hope that helps!

Ummm well thank you for that but I have already sourced out Lexicanum and I know of the named members but I never really enjoy taking one already named, and one named is usually developed too so I stray away from them even more. I much prefer making my own hence why I asked about names, but yeh, thanks anyway.

Bores wrote:I've always thought of the iron hands as having a Celtic theme; the obsession with iron and names like 'Bannus' etc. i also remember reading somewhere that the tribes of Medusa are known for their intricate tattoos but i can't remember the source for that particular one...

Hmm celtic. I could see that yeh, especially with names like Bannus and the addition of the use of intricate tattoos, I could also see that tattoo idea transfer over into the Chapter itself.


Anybody else care to put in their 2p worth?

I would think Greek. So, in making up my own IH characters, I'd start with a Greek name and then apply GrimDark. Sort of how Alexander becomes Iksandyr or Lysander or Lexandro.

 Manchu wrote:
I would think Greek. So, in making up my own IH characters, I'd start with a Greek name and then apply GrimDark. Sort of how Alexander becomes Iksandyr or Lysander or Lexandro.

Hmmm, ok, ok. I have sort of applied Greek names and culture to my Iron Warriors you see. It is possible however because I have some really neat names and such.

There is a 'clan' idea in the Iron Hands but I think that's about as Celtic as they got. They also have some latinised names, including Ferrus Manus, and of course Medusa is greek. There's no obvious earth-culture bases for them. The elephant in the room is Gabriel Santar, but then I think he was Terran, not Medusan...

A common thing tends to be double vowels, harsh K and G sounds, etc

There's a slightly easern european sound to names such as Kaargul, Khatir, Santar and then more latinised bits such as Bion Henricos. Given the vowels and soundings, maybe googling Turkish or Hungarian first names might work well??

(extra vowels added for effect!!)

Davran
Daadas
Kartal
Kaasim
Kuudrit
Gediz

Domat
Haajna
Karcsi
Kaaroly

With latinised last names? These sound pretty Iron-Handsy

Davran Bios
Kaasim Tarulon
Kartal Henricos

I only say Greek because they come from Medusa and FM was called "the Gorgon." I suppose Latin names would also make sense given their Primarch's own name (although that could just be "High Gothic") but I tend to associate such names with Ultramarines. The known names of the IH clans don't really remind me of any real life language ... maybe slightly of Sumerian or Babylonian.

ArbitorIan wrote:There is a 'clan' idea in the Iron Hands but I think that's about as Celtic as they got. They also have some latinised names, including Ferrus Manus, and of course Medusa is greek. There's no obvious earth-culture bases for them.

A common thing tends to be double vowels, harsh K and G sounds, etc

There's a slightly easern european sound to names such as Kaargul, Khatir, Santar and then more latinised bits such as Bion Henricos.

I know about the Clan system yeh. I was going to develop my own as only 5 out of the existing 10 are mentioned with 3 of those 5 being slightly fleshed out.

I can see the Greek and Latin and Celtic references so maybe I should mash them all into one.

I also like the sounds of that Eastern European twang to them, I can see where you're getting that from. Yeh, I think I may go with this.

Manchu wrote:I only say Greek because they come from Medusa and FM was called "the Gorgon." I suppose Latin names would also make sense given their Primarch's own name (although that could just be "High Gothic") but I tend to associate such names with Ultramarines. The known names of the IH clans don't really remind me of any real life language ... maybe slightly of Sumerian or Babylonian.

I know what you meant by that Manchu. I can see where you're coming from with it too. I might go with your two suggestions and use a bit more of the Eastern European thing like Arbit mentioned.

I look at German names and feel that they are a mixture of Austro- Hungarian phonetic structure.

 eldartau1987 wrote:
I look at German names and feel that they are a mixture of Austro- Hungarian phonetic structure.

What?

I'm going to go with Hungarian and Turkish names. I like the brutality to them, very abrupt and strong. Thank you ever so much for that suggestions Arbitorlan.

 Manchu wrote:

 eldartau1987 wrote:
I look at German names and feel that they are a mixture of Austro- Hungarian phonetic structure.

What?

Sorry, I sent that with my boss over my shoulder. The breakdown of those names seems to be of German basis with Austrian and Hungarian Phonetic structure.

Perhaps the IH aren't inspired by any real life culture. Their culture is most similiar to the Mechanicum.

The names listed on Lexicanum don't seem to follow one stringent line. Those names that seem to give away their origin are obviously deformed:
Bartolk - seems to originate from Bela Bartok, hungarian composer
Madeus - Amadeus, as in Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, austrian composer
Axagoras - Anaxagoras, greek philospher (the squared circle)
Sarlock - either Sherlock as in Sherlock Holmes, or Shylock, a figure in Shakespeare's "the Merchant Of Venice"
Marlock - maybe Christopher Marlowe, english theater writer and player

a cistar is a rennaissance guitar, also written cister, gittern, cithar

But overall the mixture of names, including those celtic-sounding names, and expecially the clan names, have a very conan-esque feeling to me. Every one of them could be used in one of the Conan-novels without seeming out of place. Maybe the team was inspired by an imganiary iron age where mighty warriors like Kurgan and Methos or Conan decided the fate of the world? Whatever, you will find a lot of names like these in Howard's Conan-stories.
There is a Book "the world of Conan" providing information and background to the series, but there are also lots of sites dedicated to the world of Hyboria.

Iron Hands are Cimmerians? I don't know, maybe if Conan had bionic arm.

 KamikazeCanuck wrote:
if Conan had bionic arm

Sounds spot on to me.

No one says it had to be a fitting inspiration. Maybe the crude play with words was enough reason for this: iron age - iron hands. Also Howard seemed to have the same method to come up with names like whoever made them up for the Hands, picking from very different sources and mixing it up like his whole world was a mix-up from different real examples. All I want to say is: the names we know from the Iron Hands fluff in my opinion fit seamless into Howards nomenklatura. Thus the Conan universe should be a good inspiration for more names in order to keep the vibe.
Besides: be honest. celtic or hungarian origin doesn't fitt better to the bionic theme. But Conan the barbarian even has an edge over that: he has muscles of steel and hands of iron!

edit: ahhh, just a thought struck me: there is a serious element that might hint to the world of Conan. The Hands believe the flesh is weak and they try to eliminate all weakness. Well, So thought Howard. He himself was quite obsessed with bodybuilding and did boxing. He wanted to be strong in body and in mind by all means. The role played by savages in Howards stories further demonstrates this. While civilisation reduces the neccessarity to go to one's personal boundaries, this makes man weak in body and mind., The savage life in the wilderness brings up the best in man, and so Conan the Cimmerian or the Picts of Howards world are by far the stronger. As individuals, like Conan, but also as a whole. The civilized kingdoms of Aquilonia and others suffer under constant raids, and Howards history of that era is a cycle of savage nations raiding and in the end overturning more civilized nations, then evolving and slowly degrading to the next civilized victim of the next savage hordes.

I see very well the irony (sic!) that the way of the Iron Hands is the exact opposite of the Savage ideal. You cannot go any further in civilisation than leave your biological roots behind you. But irony is a constant in the 40k universe.

Mind, I do not claim this to be the absolute truth about the origin of the Iron Hands, I don't think it too far-fetched either, as far as ways of inspiration go.

I don't think they draw from any culture very much. The primarch's name is Latin and the planet is Greek though, so maybe anything south-European would work?

Too bad there isn't an Iron Hands novel that fleshs them out more.

 Hruotland wrote:
I see very well the irony (sic!) that the way of the Iron Hands is the exact opposite of the Savage ideal.

Excellent analysis (and awesome pun). I haven't read the latest IH novel yet but isn't there something in the prelude about how reliance on the Machine is itself a weakness?

Yeah Conan and the riddle of steel really catches the idea for me too for the Iron Hands.

I remember my old painting space marines guide had them all with pretty Germanic names.

My first iron hands character will almost certainly be names Dolf

 Lucre wrote:
I remember my old painting space marines guide had them all with pretty Germanic names.

My first iron hands character will almost certainly be names Dolf

Yes. How To Paint: Space Marines does list the Iron Hands there with germanic names, but all other Iron Hands I have heard of either through Lexicanum or BL literature isn't very germanic.

Must have been from a different clan eh?

 Lucre wrote:
Must have been from a different clan eh?

Must be but you know I never thought of it like that. Each Clan recruits from itself from all over Medusa via it's moving fortresses so it never occured to me that maybe there were different sub-cultures on Medusa hence different names. Hah, learn something new every day right?

I've decided to scrap the Iron Hands and rather make my own Iron Hand successor. I've also gone with egyptian-styled names and society to help in my fluff so thanks for all the help everybody, much much appreciated.

The closest society I can think of is Europe, at the industrial age, and the steam power discovery. Everyone being obsessed with technology, and the emergence of factories and deshumanisation of work. Power of machines over men.