I'm looking for ideas for derogatory names for Armsmen of the Imperial Navy. I'm writing background for the Armsmen of the Naval Battalions on board a squadron of three Imperial vessels. These battalions make up the ' 1st Black Talon Regiment (Navy) '. I think it would only be a small step to amalgamate a few naval battalions, which are known to exist, and call it a naval regiment either officially or unofficially. I'm looking for words that proper voidsmen might refer to these toy soldier wannabe's by.

I'm portraying the Naval Regiment to be more like the Royal Marines and Troupes de Marines of the 18th Century rather than their 21st Century equivalents, a professional body of troops (at least in this regiments case) specialised in boarding actions and repelling borders, likely the regiment would have its own battle honours separate from the Black Talons squadron as well. One of the major differences between the 1st Black Talon Regiment (Navy) and, say, the Royal Marines is that they are firmly and historically part of the Navy, they're not an Imperial Guard Regiment on permanent loan or anything like that and so use the Naval Rank structure (such as it is). I prefer this because even since the days of the Imperial Army and the first crusades the Navy has been subordinate to the ground pounders. I don't imagine the Navy finding this a particularly appealing idea, so having its own 'soldiers' (I hesitate to use the word Marines for obvious reasons) might be a better alternative.

I've looked into current terms used by some armed forces but none of work very well in this universe, and I certainly want to steer away from acronyms if I can help it. Any ideas and or comments would be appreciated.

Well, by the comparisons you make, the most obvious derogatives are going to be based on the uniforms (the Napoleonic-era RMC got "Lobsters" and "leathernecks"* from this practice, just like the USMC wound up as "jarheads"), so if there's something about their dress which sets them apart obviously, then that's a start.

Another thing to bear in mind is IN armsmen and provosts are responsible for security- they're not just Marines, they're Shore Patrol, so there's the whole range of police-based pejoratives as well.
In fact, the two may well be related- everyone may well be wearing fairly similar "uniforms"/coveralls etc, apart from the MP brassards of the Regiment.

Another question to consider- is the Black Talons the name of the squadron, or just the Regiment? If the latter, expect stuff explicitly based on birdlike imagery ("Chicklets", "featherheads", "black chickens", etc.).

*Ok, leathernecks may require some explanation- the RN didn't follow the Army and Marine tradition of having people look smart and always at attention. During that period (or the early part of it, at least), one regulation way of doing that (which died out in the Army before it was abandoned by the Marines and troops of the East India Company) was by requiring their men to wear stocks as part of their uniform. Stocks were stiff leather collars that forced the wearer not to stoop, and left painful welts on the sides of the neck.

'G-Totes' or 'G-Lugs': short for 'gun toters' and 'gun luggers', the only thing they are good for (from the voidsman's point of view). Or 'meat cargo'. Maybe 'I.G.' for Interior Guard, a parody of 'Imperial' Guard, playing on the fact that they rarely see anything but the Interior of a ship. Or 'pluggers', given their role in repelling boarders, i.e. 'plugging' holes in the ship…

Adeptus-B said:

I like the "pluggers", but maybe it would be more derogatory to call them "plugs", as in they're used to "plug" the holes… Or possibly something along their secondary function as keepers of discipline, ie. "whips" or "hounds". Maybe even slackers, drones, or rations / canned meat as most of the time they're just "slacking off", waiting for the need for their use.

Since we're looking for slang words and expressions, I would start by looking up slang used in prison, army, or by sailors or the police. They're bound to have a large number of suitable candidates for appropriation and use.

Plugs does sound quite derogatory, and Interior Guard made me chuckle. I was in the Royal Navy for a short while myself so I know a few phrases for soldiers and marines etc, the best and most widely used is Pongo, for soldiers, wherever they go the 'Pong Goes'. Marines were just Booties (for obvious reasons) and RAF were Crabs/Crab Fats (comes from the colour of their uniform and crab fat, apparently).

Whilst working hard yesterday I was coming up with a few, acronyms are a good place to start I decided, as long as it sounded like a word in the end. Riggies is one coming from RIG or R ejected by I mperial G uard, this is clearly very insulting given the standards of a lot of Guard Regiments, also rig has a good nautical connotation though I'm not sure if the archaic use of the word rigging is still used in the 40k universe to describe anything else naval, such as auger array rigging for example.

Another idea was Faf's or Faffies, coming from FAF or F ire A nd F orget, this relates to their use in boarding actions and being 'fired' from boarding torpedo's. Could give rise to another word as well, to be 'Faffed' meaning to be forgotten.

A further example was Gash Party, this is directly drawn from real RN naval slang. Gash simply means rubbish (allowing for lots of uses!), and the Gash Party are the people who collect, sort through and dispose of that rubbish, its one of those gash jobs that gets rotated amongst everyone (though I could imagine an Imperial ship having it as a permanent role for its lower class scum-bag crew). The reason it could be applied to Armsmen is two fold, namely their job on board is to prevent mutinies and crime and 'take out the trash' as it were. The other reason is the general annoucement 'Out All Gash, Out All Gash' called out over the tannoi meaning that its time to take rubbish to the Gash Party. This announcement was always jokingly used when certain people were leaving the ship, on an Imperial Navy ship I could see some cheeky sod making this announcement when the Armsmen leave to board an enemy ship.

Void Fodder was another crueler one I came up with, and any acronyms that suggest Armsmen leaving the ship are on a one way trip.

DW

Alasseo said:

The boarding armour described in IH seems quit heavy. They could be called " clankers " for the "clank-clank-clank" their heavy armour makes as they rush to the battlezone. " Dead Load " (or D-Load) comes to my mind: as long as their is no boarding, they have no use at all (well, at least not in eye of the voidsmen who dislike being policed). As soon as their IS a boarding…well…. I HOPE that "load" has the same meaning as "cargo"

By the way: Battlefleet Gothic had general note on the term "voidsborn" that made much sense to me. In BF (or at least one text I once got hold on; I think it was some kind of addition) it was mentioned that the ship crew do not title themselves "void born" or "void child" since the void is this brutal thing OUTSIDE of the ship. The thing that is their deadly enemy, the thing that is the ultimate and ever-present danger to all of them. Thereby, the called themselves "shipborn". I would still stick to "Voidsmen" for a crew ranking, so. First and foremost, it is very ingrained in RT and secondly I think that all propper "voidsmen" (compared to the ratings) need to be able to "void walk"…so the term seems propr