Wesnoth lore, idioms and phrases braindump

[Drakefriend]

Well, I think the Clankers, pejorative naming for magnificient vaults and underground vermin are quite good.

300th post!

[vodot]

How mature is your audience? The suffixes and prefixes below can be switched and swapped to create endless possibilities of varying offense!

For prefixes, anything associated with the ground or metals should do: Ground-, Dirt-, Soil-, Iron-, Steel-, Tin-, Rock-, Stone-, Hill-, Gravel-, Sh*t-...

For suffixes, there's a good range from offensive to just funny; -dogs, -rats, -lings, -grubbers, -grabbers, -eaters, -drinkers, -diggers, -morsels, -flingers, -whores, -f*ckers, -sh*tters, ... you name it.

Other ideas: Fatirons, Steelfat, pre-potted stew, happy meal, tin can, tin meal, ringsmash, clang'smash, clang'crush...

These also work great for any of you looking for comebacks for the schoolyard/campus/office idiot!

[Sapient]

vodot, some of those terms are definitely unacceptable for the target crowd.
There are a lot of younguns playing (although I'd wager 90% of the under 13 crowd is clicking through the dialogs without ever reading a complete sentence).

Personally my favorite so far is "Clanclang" as Drakefriend posted (slightly revised version of mine). It's a bit less childish-sounding than my version (although the orcs and trolls that would be inventing or using this epithet are likely dumb so I don't see a problem with that). Also the implied word "clan" does seem to fit, since dwarves are very clannish.

As for Clankers, well... for some reason I keep thinking of these guys, lol

[Simons Mith]

Yes, the general target writing tone for Wesnoth is Tolkein level. That is, our orcs should be as foul-mouthed and unpleasant as his are, without actually needing to resort to anything that requires censorship. I'm certainly not intending to produce anything that would have to be toned down before it was added to the main game.

Edit: If you read Girl Genius, you'll see a rich variety of mad science robots known as clanks. So clan- stuff certainly has some promise, but perhaps a bit more baggage than we might like.

[rmj]

How about simply referring to them as gophers or moles? Perhaps "bearded gophers?" Ax wielding moles?

[Boldek]

AX MOLE!!!!!! Man, I wish someone would call me that today.

[Shinobody]

There is a question: Why orcs do not respect dwarves? "They're fighting" is not enough. What traits of them orcs would find disgusting and exaggerate them?
I say they'd despise idea of being a worker/craftsman while also being a soldier. In orcish society crafts and stuff are done by goblins or lower-class orcs who can't fight, while every dwarf has some "peace-time" activity (aside from the Guardsmen).
Secondly: Majority of orcish sprites use some kind of masks. Some portraits reflect it, with Orcish Assassin being most "ninja" unit of all "rogue" units, and their warrior helmets also seem to be designed to resemble Boba Fett cover their faces from the light.
Contrast it with dwarven ethos of "being witnessed".
????
Profit.

[Boldek]

There is a question: Why orcs do not respect dwarves? "They're fighting" is not enough. What traits of them orcs would find disgusting and exaggerate them?
I say they'd despise idea of being a worker/craftsman while also being a soldier. In orcish society crafts and stuff are done by goblins or lower-class orcs who can't fight, while every dwarf has some "peace-time" activity (aside from the Guardsmen).
Secondly: Majority of orcish sprites use some kind of masks. Some portraits reflect it, with Orcish Assassin being most "ninja" unit of all "rogue" units, and their warrior helmets also seem to be designed to resemble Boba Fett cover their faces from the light.
Contrast it with dwarven ethos of "being witnessed".
????
Profit.

Orcs seem to despise and envy orderly prosperity and quiet civilization, the way undead feel about living things, and since dwarves are always very orderly, well defended, hard to kill, and have lots of gold that they just seem to sit on, they sort of are like cockroaches: You hate 'em, you can never get rid of 'em, and they are always having a good time making you miserable. Orcs worship war and death, their promised messiah is the 'warmaster' that will conquer Irdya, bring doom to all countries, and while humans and elves are moderately easy to stamp out, dwarves just tunnel deeper and get richer. While humans are just a food and pillage source, and elves are a pesky nuisance when having a bonfire, dwarves are like the sour grapes in the fable about the fox. You can never reach them, they have lots and lots of money, they probably taste bad, and they never seem to fear you. I think it's the fact that the orcs just can't make a dwarf run screaming that sort of takes the fun out of the job.

I never really thought about the dwarves witness deal contrasted with the orcish mask thing, I think the campaign writers could benefit off that in THot.

[monokli]

Beardlegs. The dwarves are beards with legs, but I like axmole too.

[Simons Mith]

'Beardlegs' and 'ax moles' are both a bit weak in my view. But Boldek's 'Orcs seem to despise and envy orderly prosperity and quiet civilization...' comments are very insightful. The Shinobi mask observations I also particularly like, because it inspires me to some dwarvish derogatory comments about orcs which the /orcs/ probably won't get. Nothing like a bit of inter-racial misunderstanding to keep the fires of hatred hot.

Edit: Orcs being chaotic, I suspect their face masks are mainly to protect them from glare/sunburn during the day. A rich vein for mockery there...

[Sapient]

Ha, I kinda like "axe moles" because it sounds so funny. After we get enough suggestions we should totally make a poll.

[mrpunch0000]

This stuff is great! I'm roughing out an orcish campaign and I really want to dig into orc culture. people seem to have focused on it in this thread, should one for orcs be made? I even wrote an orc war song.

When his blind eye turns red
And the mothers cry
The grunts all go to die
The Enemy shall be dead
From the forest and the hills
They will be brought down to their knees
The mountains, and the seas
All our warriors will kill.

[johndh]

I even wrote an orc war song.

I like that idea. I can imagine the orcs having a rich oral tradition of war stories, sagas, and epics, potentially passed down for hundreds of generations (since orcish generations tend to not be very long ). Giving them stories, fables, and myths gives us insight into orcs as something more than murderous brutes. Orcs are not just warriors. They are also mothers, fathers, storytellers, craftsmen, etc. Plus, the idea of an orcish horde marching along and singing an ominous tune, perhaps a tribute to their fallen brethren, can be downright stirring.

[Boldek]

offtopic: Um, I was considering a sort of phrase to add into my campaign's dialogue, but it occurs to me that it may sound too 'modern' so to speak. The phrase 'I let my kids do/play/read etc.' (Which simply implies that something is wholesome or fit for youth) does that sound too earth-like?

[nuorc]

"Your skulls will make fine trophies"

Maybe: ""Your skulls will make fine mugs!"?