Rending Wail? Splintering Shriek? Banshee's Voice? I can come upwith tons of ideas

_________________
We are returned!
http://www.epic-wargaming.de/

Those both make perfect sense for the weapons though, they're not random or non-sensical - a night spinner fires a finely spun web mesh of atomic thick ultra-strong material that cuts gently but lethally through anything below it. A Fire Prism uses a large crystal prism as the main part of it's weapon in the background and the model so prism fits perfectly there too.

Tremor seems like it'd be a good, descriptive second word, but I'm stumped so far for a first word to go with it. Shrieking Tremor is the best I've got so far and I'm not totally convinced by that. Will get my thinking cap on.

Rending Hammer doesn't sound that good and the word combination doesn't work either. The meaning of rending is more tearing or ripping like you might do with your hands or claws. A hammer is a blunt instrument that will thump and potentially shatter, but not rend.

So, in the same vein as prism and spinner, then something like 'drum' or maybe 'lyre' to be more eldary. Chisel is another path I went down, especially as a chisel has the same effect on stone. Is there a word that describes what a sculptor does to a marble slab? It's hard to come up with a word that evokes the violent shaking that occurs when the gun fires. It's like that scene in Jurassic Park when the T-Rex makes the surface of water tremble. We need a cool word for that. 

In any case, my point about using a non-aggressive word is that it risks coming off as silly. Prism and spinner work, for the most part, because they come from an official POV. I mean, honestly, spinner? I get that the word is being used in the textile sense, but the other meanings of the word can make people imagine some pretty goofy things (more like a death wheel).

Obviously, for the name to stick while at the same time be unofficial (for all intends and purposes), it has to be really good. Several people obviously have problem with hammer, I understand that. And hey, this isn't astronomy, so it's not like I get to name the thing whatever I want.

And as for 'rending' not really matching 'hammer' I don't think that is an issue. Fire Prism makes no logical sense either (it's not a plasma or flame based weapon), and night spinner is a stretch (a one-template formation hardly supports the claim that the monofilament clouds block out the sun).

Come on, is Rending Hammer really that bad? The gun rends the ground apart, when it targets you it feels like being hit with a hammer, and it's an oblique referrence to known eldar mythology. It works on so many levels

Doom Caller is another name that grew on me. It cheats a bit because I stole the doom part from the old doom weaver. It's a bit awkward at first, but it slowly grows on you. I had kind of intended for that to be the name of an EoV-sized sonic tank, but I've gradually cooled to the idea of more of those.

Sonic Tremor?

Just parsing two directions you are going...

Sorry, not an expert on Eldar, but words are something I do enjoy, so just an idea.

_________________
http://www.net-armageddon.org - The official NetEA (Epic Armageddon) site and resource.
http://kealios.blogspot.com/ - My blog of my sci-fi adventures

Apologies for digging up a really old topic, but with semajnollissor's excellent concept images reappearing in the modelling part of the forum, I thought I'd drop my tuppence-worth in.

Naming
Not a huge fan of Rending Hammer, but it's one of those names that grows on you. (Fire Prism sounds a bit silly from an outsider's point of view, after all!)

I completely agree with semajnollissor's naming notes, and since it's a new addition to the artillery, you might consider taking part of the name from the existing artillery, which'd give you something '-Spinner', or 'Night-'.

Combining that with the idea of taking elemental or natural predators (serpent, viper, falcon etc), you might consider Shear-Spinner; Wave-Spinner; Tide-Spinner; Storm-spinner; Night-breaker; Night-Howler; Night-Scorpion or Night-Asp.

You might also flip the 'Night' bit on its head – as the Night Spinner is utterly silent, this tank is the complete opposite. Day-spinner sounds rubbish, frankly, but dawn and noon have a nice Eldary ring to them.
Dawn-spinner; Dawn-breaker or Noon-spinner, perhaps?

+++
Farseer Falcon
Personally, I'd have the Farseer Falcon as an upgrade for one of the Falcons in a dedicated Falcon formations:

Remove the Falcon's ranged weaponry, and replace it with (small arms) to represent the shuriken catapult. In addition, it'd get the 'Farseer' special rule (which is a great upgrade, as it gives you more of an option for the Farsight special rule) and an invulnerable save.

I think that's a fair trade-off; and I certainly wouldn't want to see the upgrade on every Falcon formation in an army. A minimal change like suggested above would also mean that a very similar upgrade could be applied to Wind Rider Hosts (so we could use our old Farseer Vypers).

Hope that's helpful!

_________________
Industrious, red-robe wearing member of the PCRC

Oh, by the way...

If anyone felt like they really wanted to play test rending hammers (or whatever you want to call them), but haven't yet because you don't have any models for them, I have good news!

I can PM you with info on how to get your very own.