Jazz-Sandwich
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Once again I have no idea how the next year of my life is going to treat me. I'm moving precisely as far away from my family and friends as is possible without leaving the country (not deliberate!) to have both a full time job and a Masters course on my plate.
So.... while I'll be in a place far from my established social circles, I'll be busy as all hell and I don't know what my internet connection is going to be like. So that means a lot of uncertainty as far as modding activity goes, as well as my availability to contact all the while. If it's the case where I can spend time modding, you'll still be seeing me raise my head every now and then. If not... then you won't.
It's the case where I'm already using this blog as a means of procrastinating from studying that I should really be doing.
So yah. Work and shit.
Boo and stuff, amirite?
Later, folks.
I was having a gander at the Eldar 6th ed codex, and I couldn't help but notice a... trend of sorts with words italicized to indicate their being an old Eldar term. A lot of these words made sense to me in their context, but it took me a while to register why -
A whole bunch of the terms are directly taken from Gaeilge, more often known as the Irish language.
Take for instance, Faolchú is mentioned as a figure in Eldar mythology who delivered the sword of the war God Khaine to the mortal warrior Eldanesh. This is supposed to be what named the Falcon vehicles of the Eldar, and is part of that nonsense that the DOW1 falcon says every now and then:
"Just as Falcon brought Anaris to Eldanesh, we bring warriors to the front". 'Anaris' apparently being the name of the kickass sword. Faolchú is pronounced 'falcon' in this instance... but it is certainly more than a coincidence that faol and cú are both words in Irish, meaning 'wolf' and 'hound'. And it's also quite odd that they've conjugated the words together appropriately, adding a 'h' where necessary... unrelated to the concept of a falcon, but Wolfhound is certainly a good ancient warrior's name.
And again, there's mention that the Harlequins of the Eldar have a name for their weird clown outfits, or domino suits - 'dathedi'. A nice amalgamation of the Irish words for 'colour' and 'clothing', dath and eadai.
Fully convinced of the link, I went looking for more. Craftworld Saim-Hann is an interesting one. A botching up of the Irish term for Summer, 'Samhain'.
So I googled the terms, and ended up with this link: Heresy-online.net
For those unwilling/too lazy to click the link, it's a forum post by a dude with more free time than I should ever hope to have, who collated all the various 'Eldar' words he could find from old codices and Black Library publications. And the amount of stuff that corresponds with Irish... well, here's some of the more obvious ones.
'High Avatar' = Ardathair = Ard + athair = 'High father'.
'Shuriken cannon' = buanna = buanna = 'talents'. Lol.
'Pack grenade launcher' = creideann, in-lore translation = belief maker apparently. Which is fitting, as the word creideann is a present-tense conjugation of the Irish verb to believe...
'Lord-Phoenix' = Tuisich-Novasmair = Not a clue what 'novasmair' is about, but tuisich is clearly a botching up of the Irish word for leader, taoiseach, which would be pronounced similarly.
'Swooping hawks' = Fian silsperiaigh = botching up of the fianna, ancient warriors in Irish mythology, and the term for 'sky', with some added crap that I don't recognise but with a plausible Irish spelling.
My explanation for all of this? Well, I have two. One, Games Workshop is a UK-based company, and when tasked with designing a weird and ancient culture, they turned to that of their neighbours...
Two, a GW employee of Irish origin was given the task of writing some Eldar fluff and got lazy :P
Irish Eldar? Doesn't seem right, does it?
Mind you... their eventual creation of the God of Excess makes a bit more sense now...
Everything, according to /tg/. A Lord of Change sounds like everything.
Unsure of how to voice a Greater Daemon of Tzeentch, I approached the denizens of the 4chan board /tg/. Now, 4chan is an awful place never go there etc., but /tg/ is a board that is safe for work, and more importantly the people there know their 40K.
So, I asked them what a Lord of Change would sound like should one be trying to voice them. Here is a small sampling of the responses:
- Like the voice of God. Wise and reassuring, offering comfort and santuary as it tells people everything they want to hear. Youtube.com
-Record yourself doing the same line twice, with the same timing, with totally different tone/inflection. Then put the two lines on top of each other. That's a Lord of Change
-Take any single statement and play it with several version of it at once. Each version has a change in intonation or inflection. So something like "I am Change" can sound like a question, a statement, an order, or even an insult all at once
-Needs more Him Youtube.com
-Buck the trend and make him sound like Goofy.>"Ah-yuck, change!"
-I honestly suggest multiple voices overlayed, like he is speaking with the thoughts and knowledge of many different people. Might be a bit overdone, but this is one case where I feel it would fit.
- Plenty of voices all together in unisono + reverb + echo
- also it probably wouldn't hurt to get some real bird noises in there as well
- It needs more whispering thoughWHISPERS FOR THE WHISPER GOD
-I recommend one voice be more prominent
-It should be less unified, more whispers like a crowd speaking together. Tzeentch is subtlety.
- Like this but with echoes Youtube.com
- a light chuckle though could really push that into a evil subtle gloat into a smug evil subtle gloat
-listen to the best fallout villain of all time: Youtube.com
-Youtube.com
-a 50-storey bird shooting lightning out of it's fingers doesn't need to be subtle
Some were obviously jokes, but the point is that people can have wildly different interpretations of how a greater daemon of change should sound, as one might expect.
So how on Earth is one to construct a voice that is iconic and properly Tzeentchian while pleasing most people? Beats me. Work is still ongoing, with some interesting results being produced.
What does Moddb think a Lord of Change should sound like?
The story mode of the Ultimate Apocalypse mod is currently undergoing a large revamp. The following is the current draft of the introduction to Mission 1.
In the beginning of the 42nd Millennium, as the galaxy
slowly recovered from the 13th Black Crusade, a tremendous surge of
power was unleashed in the Warp, screaming into the minds of psykers throughout
the galaxy. It heralded a simple message: The Champion of Chaos will rise.
slowly recovered from the 13th Black Crusade, a tremendous surge of
power was unleashed in the Warp, screaming into the minds of psykers throughout
the galaxy. It heralded a simple message: The Champion of Chaos will rise.
Shortly thereafter, a great fleet of warships poured forth from the Eye
of Terror, bearing the Eight-pointed star. As had come to pass many times, a
war host of the heretics fell upon the fortress planet of Cadia, like water
upon rock. Unlike previous such instances, no word was heard of Abaddon the
Despoiler, Warmaster of Chaos. Also unlike previous times, the soldiers of the
Imperial Guard were unprepared for the armies Chaos brought to bear.
Cadia fell within a day.
There, the Chaotic fleet splintered. Denizens of the warp went their
separate ways to satiate their thirst for carnage throughout the galaxy, and to
appease whatever force they called Master. But one such war host dwarfed all
others in size and ferocity of attack, bringing ruin upon planet after planet
with unsurpassed fury. It’s trajectory plotted a straight line towards Holy
Terra.
No spoilers here, no worries. The following is a speech given by the Imperial General Lucius Dawn to his men in anticipation of a Chaos invasion.
Soldiers of the Emperor; hear me. The unholy forces of the enemy are
almost upon us. Soon; their presence will blight this blessed city, this
bastion of the Emperor’s light. And it is our duty to cleanse their insidious
presence in His name.
This enemy is not new to you. We have stared down the madness
of the warp before. It has destroyed our homes. It has claimed our loved ones.
It has sacked relics of his divine Majesty’s grace. But it will not take this
city. This is where we stand firm.
For thousands of years your fathers and forefathers have
mounted a defense against the enemies of Man. Against countless horrors the common farmers,
storekeepers, millers and workers of the Imperium have been called to hold the
line. Fathers, brothers and sons all have shed their blood to allow human kind
to live another day.
I cannot say why we have failed in their place. I do not know
why our enemies redouble their strengths where previously they would have
fallen. These answers I do not have.
What I do have is a burning fury in my heart. A righteous
hatred for the forces we will see today. We have disgraced our fathers. We have
embarrassed our God-Emperor. But we have
this chance to redeem ourselves.
We have in our arsenal this day the mighty titans of Mars. We have the mailed
fist of our armoured divisions. We have devastating artillery to tear the sky
asunder. But most importantly we have the memory of those who have died before
us. And we will not let their sacrifices be in vain. By the Emperor’s grace WE.
WILL HOLD. THE LINE.
I'm glad you asked, entirely notional person. (Who is attractive. And smells like coffee.)
Well, at the moment I'm doing a bunch of writing for the Ultimate Apocalypse Mod for Dawn of War: Soulstorm. The campaign which this mod is introducing will feature my scripts, as of patch 1.72 - versions prior to this will be unexposed to Jazz. Plot, dialogue: stuff like that are my deal.
Also doing some voice acting for the UA mod. At the moment I've got a bunch of Orky boys done, some Chaos units, and maybe a titan or two...will be progressing onto Imperial Guard and possibly Eldar later.
Chaos dialogue is proving to be more difficult than anticipated. I exhausted my store of synonyms for 'Hatred' surprisingly quickly, and indeed many statements expressing general antipathy. Those 40K dudes need to chill :/
I mean, it's not like you're going to hear a maddened chaos worshiper screaming "ALTHOUGH I DISAGREE WITH YOUR BELIEFS I RESPECT YOUR OPINIONS!" or indeed a battle-hardened loyalist Space marine shouting "THESE XENOS SEEM LIKE PRETTY COOL GUYS!"
Having said that, the orkz were just wonderful to write for. All of da boyz are invariably having a wonderful time on the battlefield. They are not known givers of f***s. They simply do not stock f***s and are thus indisposed to hand them out. One cannot help but gain their enthusiasm whilst doing their voices ('OW MANY GUNZ WE GOT? WELL, FIRE DAT MANY!) and the only concern is getting a bit carried away.
I envisage the Eldar being somewhat difficult to do. I suppose I can aim for a position of haughty superiority and hope for the best. Although their verbosity and needless use of superfluous language should keep things interesting. Hell, look at me dawdle on; they suit me to a tee. Maybe not in the 'haughty superiority' respect, though, I should hope.
We'll see how it works out. I am open to (and actively look forward to) feedback on my work as soon as it becomes publicly available.
Tóg go bog é,
Jazz-Sandwich
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