What do you name your Soldiers of Arachnos?

Hi, all.

I'm taking advantage of the lowered VEAT requirements, but I haven't played enough villainside to really know what's appropriate for names with SoA. I'm really into backstory, and titles that sound neat or imposing.

So what names are used for your Banes? Crabs? Widows, fortunatas, huntsmen, whatever? Are there any fast and loose naming conventions applied to PvE mobs?

Thanks!

You can name it whatever you want. I went with Fallen Fortunata (a fortunata defecting to the hero side once GR comes out). Here were the other names I was considering. Most of them allude to being too powerful to control (by Recluse), switching sides, or just hard-to-kill/control-freak:

Magna Carta
Prerogative
Sovereign
Defiant Sovereignty
Nemesis
Renegade/Rebellious
Traitorous/Defective
Defiant Fortunata
Renegade Fortunata/Fateweaver
Indomitable Fortunata
Paralyzer
Paranoia
Bulletproof
Untouched/able
Supremacy
Domination
Indomitable

As long as you pick a name that matches your backstory, you'll be fine

I named mine The Emerald-Spider

Citizen Bane

Especially right after launch, the theme for most Crabs/Banes/Huntsmen has been Operative <something>. The majority of Arachnos soldiers in the game are named Operative something. I do believe that Arbiter is a reserved word now, so if you try to create a character with that name, it will fail.

As for my Widows/Fortunatas, I decided to work with the spider theme from a slightly different angle. I went to the Interwebs and found the scientific names for some of the spider families. And so, my two Forts are named Theridae (Black Widows) and Sicaridae (Brown Recluses).

Really, though, by now I think I've seen just about any kind of name for them. I'd suggest you start with a good back story. Once you've got all the details of you character fleshed out, it shouldn't be hard to pick out a very nice name.

If you want to go by traditional naming conventions of Arachnos most of the SoA are called either Operative Jones, Huntsman Jones, or if you want to make an arbiter then Arbiter Jones, Jones being interchangable with the characters last name. Widows are usually Widow Jones, Night Widow Jones or Fortunata Jones.

Then you get into the higher ranking Arachnos people with codenames like Shadow Spider who is technically a widow if I remember right. She's an ex-Knife of Artemis and an Arachnos spymaster/assassin. It's all really down to how you want to spin your character.

For example, I have an SoA and a Widow. My SoA is Arbiter Snow, real name Richard Snow, easy enough. My Widow on the other hand was found as an orphan by Kalinda and given the name Winter. She'll eventually be made into a Fortunata, but she'll go by the name Widow Winter, more in line with someone like Shadow Spider, but still conforming to Arachnos naming conventions. Up to you really. Some people play the characters as straight Arachnos (I know I don't plan on using anything but their default arachnos uniform outside of an occasional special event like halloween or something.) and others are out of the uniform as soon as possible and play them as really effective Doms and/or Stalkers for Widows or mercs with stolen Arachnos tech for Soldiers. It's up to your imagination.

Mine are Crab Farmer, Blood-Harvester and Huntsman McFeeley, who's coming at you with a speedy delivery, OF PAIN!

With them I just incorporated their class in the name somehow. With the wide variety of play styles for the SoAs I thought it was a good idea to give at least some clue to what they were getting by just reading the name alone. Although, Blood-Harvester ended up a Fort in the long run, so he's actually backward.

Arbiter by the way, is not on the reserve list, I'd never even heard that so I had to test it to verify, just made one.

Carlos Spicyweiner

My three SoA are Huntsman Hrothvar, Web 2.0 (Crab), and Shirala (Bane). Naming conventions consistent with an Arachnos agent always work (Operative, Huntsman, Arbiter, Fortunata, etc.), but spider puns of any sort are pretty standard.

Then again, nothing is in place saying that your Arachnos soldier has to be standard. You could make a Bane spider wearing neon orange and green striped tights with a jester's hat and call him Blueberry Turkey, if you wanted to.

Crimson Arachnid

Widow Burns

Currently a lvl 35 Night Widow

I name them Operative _____, like most named bosses or NPCs.

e.g. my Crab Spider is named Operative Harvestman.

Night Widow Psychose and Fortunata Amira.

I keep mine very close to the actual lore of the NPC, but with my own unique backstories. I tried to keep power selection limited to only NW or Fort powers also.

Spider Mat on test, Operative Matthree on live :P

Crab is Operative Opiliones
Soldier/Bane is Operative Solifugae
Fort/Widow is Operative Acarina

Yeah, I'm pretty lazy when it comes to naming.

I really wanted to just man mine Bob... but that name was already taken.

My Night Widow is called Lana Fiore.

In DnD she was always a rogue who worked on the side of the law, typically in league with some order of Paladin. Why? Because for all the shining armor and dragon slaying, they still needed someone who could discreetly go undercover to gather information, loosen tongues, create chaos, and when the need called for it, assassinate key targets. Most of the time she was not afforded good armor or a powerful weapon to do it either, but rather an elegant dress and a very small and concealable weapon. Where other Paladin delivered Justice, she figured out where injustice was.

While I've always been a rogue at heart, her position and work demanded that she be an interesting and complex character to play. Unlike her more militant brethren, she often placed herself in positions that would put extreme pressure on her moral and ethical beliefs, and yet no one was more suited for such a task.


I was going to make her a Stalker in CoH, and make her start a hero in GR, but I didn't like really like DB on a Stalker (The weapon she would have most likely been using), nor did I feel like the flashy set fit her personality very well. She would have likely wound up being a /nin too, and I already had two of those; a third would have felt even more excessive.

I started looking at the SoA, and the Widows were the only one that really appealed to me, and the costume seemed of the exact sort of deadly elegance she would have been likely to dress herself in. The Claws seemed a nice touch, especially for a discrete assassin. The Leadership powers and heightened mental capabilities seemed to fit into the profile of a very intelligent character. The entire powerset just felt perfect for her.

I haven't really decided if she's undercover, going to have a change of heart, or attempting to overthrow Arachnos to build a better tomorrow herself. The DnD Lana Fiore did not begin life working for the Paladin either, after all. For the time being I'm enjoying the Epic Story, and deciding how the character feels about that as I go along. Part of the fun in this game, is, after all, the journey.

I have a fortunata named Crimson Mystique, a bane spider huntsman (bane build w/gun attacks only) named Midnight Renegade and a crab spider named Midnight Carnage.

No real backstory behind the names, I didn't want to stick to the usual Operative XXX or Widow YYY I saw most of the time, although with Midnight Renegade I figured it was a good name for a renegade arachnos operative.

I named my widow Golden Shrike. Naming after a bird which likes to impale insects on thorns seemed appropriate.

Weird seeing my SoA's name top the first list

Here's my SoA, Magna Carta:



I've tried to play several AR blasters and corruptors, but none felt right. The Hunstman finally hit the mark for the gun toting badass for me, and that's where Magna Carta comes from. I plan on playing him strictly as a Rogue, never a true villain or hero.

Longbow File Information:
"Some say he's immortal and was even present at the signing of the Magna Carta in 1215. Magna Carta (Mag) is an expert marksman and an even better leader. Mag has been integral in the formation and preservation of several democracies the world over.The source of his political power and resources is unknown."

In game bio:

I have:
Pinchy - Crab Spider
Operative Clem - Bane Spider
Fortunata Atropos - Fortunata

If in doubt, Operative/Fortunata/Widow <whatever> is generally easier to come up with in terms of sounding/looking ok without already having been taken years ago.

My Soldier, soon to be Bane Spider is named Operative Battlescar. He's in a pact with a widow named Agent-Anarchy

I've used both the "Operative" and "Huntsman" conventions. Note that "Huntsman" is usually reserved for a Wolf Spider, that is, a Soldier that does not choose to take either the Bane or Crab career options. As several guides on the board describe, though, that doesn't mean you can't take Bane POWERS, you just don't call yourself a Bane, you call yourself a Wolf, and concentrate on your base powers instead of the Bane tree.

Of course, taking ANY Crab powers gives you the backpack, so I would say conceptually a Huntsman cannot take any Crab powers.

My main SoA, however, is a female Crab Spider named Arachnophelia. It's a codename, and really the concept that I developed the whole character around. She's obsessed with spiders, almost to the point of a fetish, which is why she joined Arachnos. She really wants to actually be a spider. I just decided the "Operative" label didn't fit with that name.

Although I've never used them, I would guess "Webmaster" would be an effective title for a Crab Spider, while "Commando", or "Executioner" would be for Bane Spiders. I believe I've also seen "Seer" for Fortunatas.