Orc tribe names

[The Gray Ghost]

I'm expanding my Sgt Major/Vendel orcs and goblins to make more tribes and am looking for some good tribal names.
I already have Severed Hands and Black Mountian
I'm using them in a Dark Ages setting against my El Cid/Norman forces

[Hobgoblin]

How about this?

D20: Adjective

1. Rotten
2. Black
3. Dire
4. Vile
5. Unholy
6. Filthy
7. Bloody
8. White
9. Broken
10. Grinning
11. Bad
12. Foul
13. Evil
14. Accursed
15. Low
16. Red
17. Grim
18. Stinking
19. Corrupt
20. Hell(ish)

D20: Noun (pluralise according to taste)

1. Hand
2. Wolf
3. Serpent
4. Heart
5. Dragon
6. Bone
7. Head
8. Blade
9. Moon
10. Sun
11. Eye
12. Face
13. Raven
14. Arrow
15. Rune
16. Axe
17. Goat
18. Knife
19. Skull
20. Wing

That should give you a fair few options. I think even odder combinations could work - the Orcs of the Grinning Knife or the Legion of the Corrupt Goat suggest some interesting heraldic options to me.

[paintinglittlesoldiers]

Stinking Hand !
Low Goats !

Thanks

[BlackWidowPilot]

Inverted Polecats.

Angry Rats.

Itch Scratchers.

Head Rippers.

Bone Gnawers.

Maggot Munchers.

Hobbit Tossers.

Hammer Heads.

Nose Biters.

Ear Cutters.

Rabid Skunks.

Broken Fangs.

Scalp Rippers.

Eye Poppers.

Rusty Nails.

Tetanus Bringers.




My, this IS a good glass of Merlot....

[Lowtardog]

I was thinking of the hill tribes from Game of Thrones, things like the stone crows or the red dogs that sort of thing

[Vladimir Raukov]

Inverted Polecats.

Angry Rats.

Itch Scratchers.

Head Rippers.

Bone Gnawers.

Maggot Munchers.

Hobbit Tossers.

Hammer Heads.

Nose Biters.

Ear Cutters.

Rabid Skunks.

Broken Fangs.

Scalp Rippers.

Eye Poppers.

Rusty Nails.

Tetanus Bringers.




My, this IS a good glass of Merlot....

Will the rusty nails or tetanus bringers join forces? 

As for other names, stuff like broken teeth or skull splitters are nice and visceral, if that's what you're going for.

[LordOdo]

- the bastard hammerers

- the rotten tooth rawhides

- Iron-knee's jolly boyz

- beer bears brigade

- the kebab knight of Garlycbreath

I think I'm gonna use that last one myself

[Vermis]

Garlycbreath

 

I think that's the new way to make things seem old world, isn't it? Rather than stick an E on the end, replace some random I's with Y.

[LordOdo]

I think that's the new way to make things seem old world, isn't it? Rather than stick an E on the end, replace some random I's with Y.

 

I don't know anything about new or old ways haha Good a I just change I's to Y's and K's to CK's..

Since that post I've been thinking a lot to start a new project around the fair city of Garlycbreath...

[Hobgoblin]

Here's an additional table to give a group noun before the first (to complete the formula "The X of the Y Z", as in "The Horde of the Hellish Sun"

D20 Group Noun
1. Tribe
2. Clan
3. Legion
4. Band
5. Pack
6. Battalion
7. Host
8. Swarm
9. Banner
10. Myriad
11. Gang
12. Troop
13. Confederation
14. People
15. Brood
16. Seed
17. Throng
18. Brothers
19. Wrath
20. Immanence

That should give a range of different structures, with varying connotations of civilisation or its lack. Here, for example, are representatives of the Grinning Skull Gang, the Horde of the Accursed Skull, the Vile Rune Legion, the People of the Hellish Sun, the Grim Moon Tribe, the Myriad of the White Serpent and the Seed of the Red Wolf.  

[mweaver]

Well, for more than a quarter of a century, whenever we play the awesome old GW card game Chaos Marauders (second edition now available from FFG), my tribe has been the Swollen Scrotums.* They are the bestest tribe, so feel free to use their name with pride!

Mind you, last Friday's game didn't go so well...

-Michael

*Often in that condition because the other tribes are enthusiastically putting the boot in their voolnerables. 

[Daeothar]

This thread so reminds me of a passage in Mary Gentle's Grunts:

Ork Captain: 'Right; so give me a list of all squads we have so far'.
Ork Lieutenant, raising clipboard: 'Let's see, so far we have fourteen Black Squads, six Night Squads, ten Dark Squads, five Sword Squads, nine Skull Squads, three Executioner Squads, two Vengeance Squads and one Pink Squad'.
'Pink Squad?'
'Yes; we're all a bit worried about Pink Squad...'

[Elgis]

One way to make up the names of marauding tribes is to name them after some specific quirk of the tribe, so if they like particularly like e.g. burning temples then they are the the tribe of the burning temple. If they like eating horse meat/ killing horses then they are the Horse Eaters.

 After all, how many migration era peoples were allegedly named after their long beards or choice of weapon?

[Hobgoblin]

One way to make up the names of marauding tribes is to name them after some specific quirk of the tribe, so if they like particularly like e.g. burning temples then they are the the tribe of the burning temple. If they like eating horse meat/ killing horses then they are the Horse Eaters.

 After all, how many migration era peoples were allegedly named after their long beards or choice of weapon?

Good points! Lombards and Franks, for starters. And of course Tolkien swiped the former for Middle-earth.

Then there are exonyms  (e.g. Sioux) and endonyms (e.g. Lakota). Endonyms (what a group calls itself) often mean "the People" or "the Friends", whereas exonyms (what others call the group) tend to be derogatory.

Interestingly enough, Tolkien does this with the orcs: the orcs of Isengard are generally described in the narrative simply as "orcs". But they call themselves "the Uruk-hai of Isengard", or "the fighting Uruk-hai" or just "the Uruk-hai". "Uruk-hai" seems, ultimately, to mean just "Orc-people" or "Orc-folk". The large fighting orcs of Mordor presumably call themselves something similar: Shagrat and Gorbag are overheard complaining that "the poor Uruks" often have to sort problems out, but their exchange is translated for Sam by the Ring. We can fairly suppose that they would actually have said "Uruk-hai" in Black Speech (see also the tracker orc's reference to "rebel Uruk-hai" - by inference, the soldiers of "that filthy rebel Gorbag").

As an aside, gamers and film-makers tend to seize on the Uruk-hai as something more than just orcs: super-orcs. But in The Lord of the Rings, they're almost always described simply as "orcs" in the narrative. They are "goblin-soldiers of greater stature" [than the small Northeners], but they are still just goblins.

Another fantasy endonym would be that of Runequest's trolls (exonym!). To themselves, the trolls are simply Uz!

[Jiron]

How about this?

D20: Adjective

1. Rotten
2. Black
3. Dire
4. Vile
5. Unholy
6. Filthy
7. Bloody
8. White
9. Broken
10. Grinning
11. Bad
12. Foul
13. Evil
14. Accursed
15. Low
16. Red
17. Grim
18. Stinking
19. Corrupt
20. Hell(ish)

D20: Noun (pluralise according to taste)

1. Hand
2. Wolf
3. Serpent
4. Heart
5. Dragon
6. Bone
7. Head
8. Blade
9. Moon
10. Sun
11. Eye
12. Face
13. Raven
14. Arrow
15. Rune
16. Axe
17. Goat
18. Knife
19. Skull
20. Wing

That should give you a fair few options. I think even odder combinations could work - the Orcs of the Grinning Knife or the Legion of the Corrupt Goat suggest some interesting heraldic options to me.

I just tried that but I think I will keep the name of Rotting Eyes for future...