Meaningful Name/Tabletop Games

One does not need a high Passive Insight to catch the meaning behind some RPG characters.


 * Warhammer 40000:
 * Both played straight and inverted with the Space Marine Chapter names. On the straight side, you have loyalist Chapters named "Imperial Fists" and "Black Templars", as well as Chaos Legions named "Black Legion" and "World Eaters". On the other hand, you have loyalist Chapters named "Flesh Tearers" and "Soul Drinkers", as well as Chaos Legions named "Emperor's Children" and "Word Bearers". There's a joke going around that calls this out.
 * Outside of the Space Marine Chapters, a good example is Abaddon the Despoiler. Before he added the honorific he was the most honoured Marine in the most honoured Chapter; then (surprise, surprise) he and his whole chapter followed their Primarch into the worship of the Dark Gods.
 * Also for Chaos, Kharn the Betrayer, who earned the suffix after slaughtering his Legion and the one they were fighting after they dared to hide in their shelters during a deadly blizzard.
 * Kharn's boss, Angron is best known for having a fuse on his temper measured in nanometers. Oh, and fucking up a planet's shit, but that was because he had a nano-scale fuse.
 * Vulkan, the Primarch of the Space Marine Legion (later Chapter) that is known for Kill It with Fire tactics.
 * He's also named after Vulcan, the Roman god of fire and blacksmiths (coincidentally, the Salamanders' homeworld is known for its smiths).
 * Most Primarchs have meaningful names: Rogal Dorn, Primarch of the Imperial Fists (dorn means "fist" in old Celtic); Corax, Primarch of the Raven Guard ("corvus corax" is Latin for "raven"); Ferrus Manus, Primarch of the Iron Hands (his name is Latin for "Iron Hand"); Sanguinius, Primarch of the Blood Angels (his name is faux Latin, but can be roughly translated as "The Bloodied One"); Lion El Jonson, Primarch of the Dark Angels ("The Dark Angel" is a poem by Lionel Johnson, an English poet).
 * The Eldar word for humans, the upstart, the hairy savage? Mon-keigh, and the (marginally more subtle) equivalent Tau word, Gue'la. (which gets bonus points for being similar to the Chinese word for foreigner, gweilo).
 * The Imperium is really, really bad (or really prophetic) at naming planets. The planet Tartarus for example became a blasted hellscape from the incursions of Chaos and a Negative Space Wedgie. Then there's the planet Armageddon, which has suffered three horrifically cataclysmic wars, the first led by the Daemon Primarch of the aformentioned World Eaters followed by the endless hordes of the Warp, the subsequent two led by the biggest Ork in the galaxy at the head of the largest Ork WAAAGH! in history.
 * The Orks also could be an embodiment of this trope. Ork Glyphs (or Root Words) are essentially a meaningful name construction kit. For instance Wazdakka Gutzmek (the bike riding special character) can translate as Speed-Shoot/Attack Engine-Clever/technology. Zogwort can translate as No Good-Fungas. All of the Glyphs can be constructed to name your own Warboss, usually associated with kinds of tactical prowess or characteristics. A warboss called Gorbad for instance could be known for slaughtering countless and being generally evil. Orks in the background often refer to enemies as 'Skumgrods' which can be translated roughly as 'Favourite Enemy'.
 * The Dark Eldar live in the city of Commorragh- a city full of murder, rape, slavery and other wholesome family entertainments. It sounds a lot like the Biblical city Gomorrah where much of the same stuff went on.
 * Warhammer Fantasy does this too. Malus Darkblade isn't exactly the kind of person you'd pop round to borrow a cup of sugar from.
 * Also the dark elves worship Khaine, the God of murder. Khaine is a different spelling of Cain - the first murderer in human history according to the Bible.
 * Exalted uses this quite a bit for its signature characters. The characters whose anima banners take the form of a swan and a panther, respectively? They're named Swan and Panther. The Solar Night Caste archer? He's named Gold-Shadowed Arrow. The abused, runaway wife of one of history's worst Villains With Good Publicity? She's named Lilith.
 * The World of Darkness gamelines, New and Old, loves this trope. Just open up a dictionary and you can learn great secrets. Autocthonia, Stygia, Camarilla, Sabbat, Verbena, and so on.
 * Shadowrun supplement Neo-Anarchists' Guide to North America. The Chicago mayor's spokeswoman is named Lotte Krapp (lot of crap).