Over the past few weeks I went down a rabbit hole
trying to understand what the hell is going on with the names used in armored Core 6. Like, what
sort of name is Sulla? What is a Bornemissza? And, just... what? The good news is the vast majority of these
names do have a clear inspiration behind them. They're borrowed from many different languages
and retracing their origins can also give us some really interesting insight into the lore.
In this video is everything I managed to find out regarding the origin of these names and be
warned that that's going to be some minor spoilers for the different endings of the game. So, if that
doesn't bother you too much, let's go and have a look, shall we? Language-wise, the biggest influence
on the game definitely comes from Latin, and it's right there in the title: Fires of Rubicon. The game
is set on the planet Rubicon 3, named after a small river in central Italy which went down in history
when a certain Julius Caesar crossed it with its army on 49 BC, thus precipitating a Civil War. The
phrase "Crossing the Rubicon" assumed the meaning of "passing a point of no return". On that occasion
Caesar famously pronounced the phrase "Alea Iacta Est", meaning "the die is cast" which is also the
name of the third and final ending of the game . This is also echoed by Thumb Dolmayan, the founder
of the Rubicon Liberation Front, who repeatedly mentions the die that shall not be cast. "For none of us
shall cast the die". Alea in the phrase means dice , or game of chance, and also gives the name to the
ocean on planet Rubicon that we have to cross to get to the ice field, the Alen ocean. The game
seems to take a great deal of inspiration from Caesar's life, other Latin toponyms are the Gallia
Dam and the Bona Dea Dunes. Gallia is the Latin name for the province of Gaul, where Caesar spent almost
10 years fighting the Gallic Wars, and Bona Dea, meaning good goddess, is the name of an ancient
Roman Divinity. We know her only as the good goddess because only initiated women were allowed
to attend her rites and know her true name and, guess what, the overwhelming majority of Latin
sources came from male authors, and the real name of the Goddess is lost to history. Yearly rites were
held in the good goddess name and famously during one of these festivals in 62 BC a great scandal
erupted when a politician named Clodius committed sacrilege by attending the rights disguised as a
woman, apparently in an effort to seduce Caesar's wife Pompea. Pompea was the granddaughter of
Lucius Cornelius Sulla, Roman dictator who greatly influenced Caesar's career. Then we have the Doser "Honest" Brute, whose name references Brutus , one of the Assassins of Caesar. The phrase "Et tu, Brute?" meaning "You too, Brutus?", uttered by a dying Caesar, signifies an unexpected betrayal by a friend,
which is exactly what happened to Carla in the game. Let's take a look now at our good
buddy Rusty, who is part of The Vespers , Arquebus' augmented humans squad. Vesper is
another Latin word meaning, Twilight or Nightfall, but when Rusty finally drops the muzzle
and reveals himself as a double agent working for the Rubicon Liberation Front, his AC, Steel Haze, gets upgraded to Steel Haze Ortus, which means birth or rise in Latin, especially used
in reference to the sun to mean Dawn. Steel Haze Ortus is made by Elcano, whose parts follows
a Spanish naming scheme, and is made up of AlbapParts which, you might have guessed, also
means dawn in Spanish. The whole "Twilight into Dawn" theme is also referenced in The amazing song
of the mission where we meet Rusty in his new AC. Another two interesting references on this same theme: the Rubicon Research Institute developed a weapon called Aurora, which is the proper Latin
word for Dawn, and Nightfall is also the name of the real Raven's AC. Let's now have a look at some PCA
crafts, because they sure love classical references. My favorite is the autonomous craft Balteus, which
is named after the belt worn by Roman soldiers , and you can definitely see the inspiration here.
We also have the PCA Special Forces Ekdromoi, named after ancient Greek light infantry units. the
name apparently translates to "outrunners", which is funny, considering that their motto is "no one outruns the Ekdromoi". Finally, there's the PCA Cataphract. The name originates in ancient
Greek and is then borrowed by Latin, where it means, basically, "armored", and went on to designate
heavily armored cavalry units. One final Latin note: you might have noticed that the logo of the
Overseers features a Latin motto: "Praestat Cautela Quam Medela". It means "prevention is better than
cure", and on the logo are two figures pruning a tree. This is in reference to the Overseers
job to monitor the growth of Coral and stop it before it reaches a critical point. Speaking
of plants, some of the technologies created on Rubicon are named after plants. The Nepenthes, the
weapon platform guarding the depths of Watch Point Alpha, is named after a genus of carnivorous
plants that use tube-shaped structures to trap prey. The supremely annoying wheel machines
are called Helianthus, which is the genus of sunflower plants. And the City of Xylem is named
after tubular structures that transport water and nutrients through a plant. A plant with Xylems is called a tracheophyte, or vascular plant. Let's talk next about the names assigned
to the various factions' pilots, starting with Arquebus' squad, the Vespers. They are
a mixed bunch, liberally using names of famous artists and writers. Freud and
O'Keeffe are probably the ones that most people will recognize, while Maeterlinck,
Swinburne and Pater are somewhat more obscure. Hawkins is a very common last name, and
there are literally too many people it could refer to, but the glaring anomalies are Rusty
and Snail. Rusty being different makes sense, considering that he is really an undercover
member for the Rubicon Liberation Front, but I couldn't really find a convincing explanation
of Snail's name. Someone online mentions that in Salvador Dalì's autobiography he says he had
this revelation: that Sigmund Freud's brain was in the shape of a snail. Maybe this
plays into Snail being the real brain of the Vespers, instead of Freud? I don't know, I'm not
too convinced, and Salvador Dalì was full of [ __ ] anyway. Balam's pilot group, the Redguns,
make a lot more sense by comparison. They are all named after lakes and rivers. we don't get to
meet G7 Hakra but we can find his destroyed AC in the very first mission. Also, during the "Intercept
the Redguns" mission, G1 Michigan calls some MT pilots by name, and they are committed to the
bit, as well. Next up are the Rubicon Liberation Front pilots, and you probably already noticed
how they are named after fingers on a hand. But there's also some interesting symbolism going on
regarding Father Dolmayan and his flag. Dolmayan is an Armenian name and his AC, ASTGHIK, is also
named after an Armenian divinity, whose name means Little Star. There's nine stars on
Dolmayan's decal, separated in groups of six and three and six stars are also present on the
logo of the RLF. Astghik, according to tradition, is the daughter of the biblical Noah, and the logo
could very well represent Noah steering the ark towards dry land. Why the six stars, and what's the
meaning of the scale on Dolmayan's decal? I do not know, and if you have any theories in regard please do
let me know. But there's another affiliated pilot who has a six in his name and could be considered
the unofficial sixth member of the RLF: Rokumonsen. His name means "Six Mon Coins", which in Buddhism
represents the toll needed to cross the Sanzu River into the after life. The Rokumonsen is
famously the emblem of the Japanese Sanada Clan, meant to represent that they are not afraid to die
in battle, and the six coins are reflected in Rokumonsen's decal, together with the inverted first
kanji of the word "Shinobi", which is the name of his AC. And finally, let's have a look at the RaD
pilots, who have this fun little theme where all their nicknames are sarcastic or not true. "Chatty"
doesn't talk much, "Honest" is a liar and a traitor, and "Invincible" is the lowest ranked pilot in the
arena. As for Carla, "Cinder" is a nickname given to the survivors of the Fires of Ibis, and both Ayre and the Dosers comment on how Carla appears to be far too young to have experienced the Fires,
50 years in the past. There are, however, evidences that point to Carla actually having experienced
the Fires, and her age is currently an unsolved mistery. For the final part of this video
let's go over the AC part names, as there are some really cool things to discover
here. There are 14 parts manufacturers in the game, and everyone follows its own
naming convention, Balam's parts all use last names, and you might have noticed that similar
parts are coupled with similar ending names. But the interesting bit, and I only found out
halfway through the creation of this video, is that every single part is named after a
famous entomologist, mainly from the 19th century. Next up is Dafeng, a Balam
subsidiary. It is named after a Chinese district, and the names used
are those of constellation of the Xīng Guān, the traditional Chinese system of
astronomy that dates back to the 5th Century BC. BAWS produces rifles and frame parts, and all
the names are references to the Japanese haiku poet Matsuo Basho. His 10 best pupils are known
as the Shomon Jitettsu, and every other part is named after one of the pupils. Schneider is an Arquebus
subsidiary, and its name is the third most common German last name, meaning "tailor". All its frames and
weapons are named in German after birds species, and the boosters use birds anatomical parts. Elcano
Foundry is probably named after Juan Sebastian Elcano, Spanish navigator best known for having
completed the first circumnavigation of the globe. We already talked about the Alba frame,
and all the other parts use Spanish names, as well. RaD uses a variety of wacky or nonsensical
names, like the "Bad Cook" flamethrower or the "Spring Chicken" reverse joint legs. After, all the motto
of RaD's boss Carla is "Get your laughs while you can". The loadout of her AC is particularly silly,
and "Full Course" is just the perfect name for it. Rubicon Research Institute parts use a
variety of science-related names, in addition to characters references. The Ephemera and HAL frames
are used, respectively, by Ayre and Handler Walter in different endings. "Ephemera" means "short lived", and
Ayre uses Redshift weapons in reference to her being Coral. Walter uses WLT weapons and, using
the same logic, HAL could stand for Handler. The rest of their builds is made up of NGI parts, the pinnacle of Coral-based technology. Other parts use anatomical names, like Gills, Aorta, and Ocellus, which is the name given to the simplest eye structure found in invertebrates.
And of course we can't forget the Moonlight Sword the recurring weapon present in almost every From
Software game. ALLMIND parts,excluding the Alpha and Beta frames, use a four-letters code, which
spells words related to the weapon, like Javelin Hammer, Orbit and Karasawa which is the name of a
famous recurring piece of equipment in the Armored Core series. Melinite specializes in bazookas and
explosives, and I couldn't really find a common theme to their names. Melinite itself, though,
is an explosive used in artillery shells. All the other manufacturers don't use any names at
all but, alpha numeric series, instead. Arquebus and its Advanced Development Division, despite
featuring heavily in the game plot, do not have any named parts, and an arquebus is a type of 15th
century long gun. Furlong has a seemingly endless variation of missile launchers. In reference to
this predilection for ranged weapons, a furlong is a unit of measurement, 1/8th of a mile, and
Furlong's logo it's a Sagittarius, who uses a bow. And that pretty much sums up everything
I could find regarding the names used in the game. There are still many names for which I
couldn't find a clear inspiration, and of course, it's not like everything has to have a deeper
meaning behind it: sometimes a cigar is just a cigar. But still, if you have any ideas, I would love
to hear about it! Thank you for watching, bye-bye
