Kilrathi interior designer needed

[Quarto]

Ok back to normal. Please stop mentioning Spelljammer, you are ruining 5 years of therapy.
(No, seriously. Stop)

Search your feelings, you know you want to go back to it...

Now where were we? Thrakath's cloak. Colors. Kilrathi Architecture. I am still searching for a cool artist who is able to show me some nice sketch. Where is NinjaLA? (he is awesome, I bet he could come up with something nice).

Right. Now, we don't really know anything about the ideology governing the Kilrathi use of colour. I'm pretty sure it's mentioned somewhere that the use of red/orange on ships is a result of the particular colour of the durasteel alloy they use, but I don't remember the details. In any case, here's what is certain: blue is very rarely seen in the games, and... well, anywhere. There's no canon ideology behind this, but it certainly could be treated the way you suggest, as a royal colour (just check what the Emperor is wearing). One way or the other, I would avoid using it in architecture, because if it didn't show up so far, it shouldn't show up now.

 

[capi3101]

There are still people who actually want to play this!? ... Please stop mentioning Spelljammer, you are ruining 5 years of therapy. (No, seriously. Stop)

Mwahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha..........
(Man, this board seriously needs a little devil-horn emoticon. And for the record, I'm mainly interested out of a sense of morbid curiosity).

I'm with Quarto on the architecture/color blue thing; I wouldn't stick the blue in anywhere on the exterior of a Cat building. Maybe inside, and then sparingly at best. Should be reds and browns, with big nasty sharp pointing bits.

Anybody ever notice how the design of the Emperor's Palace (assuming that's what it is) in the opening credits of WC3 looks a lot like the concept sketch of the Empress Graknala's home on Vukar Tag? Probably should be a good indication of what Kilrathi buildings should look like

 

[Aginor]

Ok, brace for impact, here are some pictures:

The priest is wearing blue color. Actually she is wearing almost only this blue cape!
This is (one of) the high priest(s) of Sivar so maybe the blue color has to do with the Sivar cult.
https://hkn.eecs.berkeley.edu/~drake/firassa.gif

Melek isn't wearing any blue, neither in WC3 nor in WC4
https://cdn.wcnews.com/newestshots/full/wc3surrender1.png
https://cdn.wcnews.com/newershots/full/kilrathi_poll_wc4.jpg

The Emperor in WC2 does
http://home.sprynet.com/~avatarr/wc2empor.gif

So does Thrakath in Wc2, and there is also blue in the background, but IIRC WC1+2 had pretty limited color palettes and these are Thrakath's rooms so maybe this might not say much.
http://i.ytimg.com/vi/WsZBrlEWzZo/0.jpg

Here's the Emperor in WC3. You can see a glimpse of blue under his right shoulder, this seems to be his cape.
http://www.wcmush.com/assets/kilrathi.jpg
The second picture shows this more clearly, he is indeed wearing a blue cape it seems.
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_csfr1z1yR...E/kLO_Ydtu1h8/s400/kilrathi_wingcommander.jpg


Soooo here's my theory:
Blue is a clerical color. So the priests of Sivar wear a lot of blue naturally.
The ruling clan' leaders wear blue because they are rulers "by the grace of Sivar", comparable to medieval kings and emperors ('dei gratia rex' and so on).
Since Sivar is the highest deity of the Kilrathi it seems logical to me that the crowning ceremonies (if there are any which I assume) feature priests of Sivar and blue colors, and the blue color symbolizes the grace of Sivar.
Also we know that the bonds of the Kilrathi (at least of the normal people) to their leader are very strong, they ar ready to follow him everywhere, even into death. That's something which seems to be against the normal competitive and fighting-among-each-other way of life Kilrathi seem to follow. So they are bound by something, and that may be religion.
Maybe even their honor codex was originally forced by the clergy to forge the Kilrathi clan society into something bigger.


Well, maybe some of what I just wrote is too far fetched, but I think the explanation for the blue color may fit.

 

[Quarto]

That theory is fine, however - my advice would be to follow this theory in visual design, but never mention it in any form . If you use blue this way, you're pretty safe, you're just imitating previous WC games. But if you go out of your way to explain why blue is used this particular way, you may be going further than fan projects should in creating new facts, and you open up the (admittedly unlikely) possibility that one day some new WC game will specifically contradict this.

 

[Aginor]

Of course I'll try to avoid contradicting canon, but well, if I want to tell a Kilrathi story I have to make things up anyway or it would be a pretty empty story. We just know sooo few facts about the Kilrathi.
The good news is: I won't be "creating facts". That's simply because I can't. Fan projects are not capable of creating canon.

In order not to step on anyone's toes I will be careful, that goes without saying. I will look into everything I can possibly know about Kilrathi and I won't make up anything that contradicts canonical facts or feels ridiculous or unsuitable. It is just hard to avoid mentioning "new" things because almost everything I could possibly say would be new.

When in doubt whether there could be contradictions I will ask the canon experts here (provided they are willing to help me with my mod) whether they think something is acceptable or not.

And if some game WC in the future contradicts something I wrote... well, I'll be too happy about a new WC game to be sad or angry about that. It has happened before and will happen again (imagine the Kamrani class would have been called 'Wararrar' in the Arena manual. Nobody would have complained to the Standoff team (I think the name 'Kamrani' was invented in Standoff) that they suck because they contradict canon... at least I hope so. I have seen what people have been called here for making up stuff that doesn't fit).

But if I want to write a nice Kilrathi story the canon facts about the Kilrathi are way too scarce in my opinion. I'll have to take that risk I fear, or I must stop writing my story right now. And I'll put a disclaimer in the credits or something.

 

[Wojo]

So long as whatever gets designed has large open areas with dangerous ledges and pits and openings into space. It strikes me that the Kilrathi are somewhat lacking in the occupational safety and health area... So no guard rails! And there better be some sharp pointy objects to run into!

 

[Quarto]

And if some game WC in the future contradicts something I wrote... well, I'll be too happy about a new WC game to be sad or angry about that. It has happened before and will happen again (imagine the Kamrani class would have been called 'Wararrar' in the Arena manual. Nobody would have complained to the Standoff team (I think the name 'Kamrani' was invented in Standoff) that they suck because they contradict canon... at least I hope so. I have seen what people have been called here for making up stuff that doesn't fit).

Don't get me wrong. As you point out, it's pretty impossible to make a fan story without establishing something new that wasn't in the canon. What I meant was that our interventions should be as circumspect as possible. It's one thing to make up a new word, character, ship, or event (the last being the absolute minimum we can do ), and it's another thing to establish something that influences the universe as a whole. Even the latter can be done, sometimes, but it's simply respectful to limit such changes to the absolute minimum. In this case, for example, you don't need to explain to anyone why the Kilrathi use blue the way they do (for much the same reasons why a medieval game will usually not have dialogue about why kings wear crimson) - you just need to use blue the way you wanted. Making a Kilrathi mod, you need to be extra careful, because you will need to introduce much more new information than any other mod - so it becomes all the more important to weigh carefully what genuinely needs to be told, and what doesn't.

 

[Aginor]

@Quarto: Ok, now I get your point and I fully agree. Of course this will influence the story writing for my campaign a lot, but since I'm still very early in the development of the story those problem will come up on a later point in the development.
And of course I have to warn you all here at the CIC: I might open a Kilrathi culture thread for all those questions, and some of them might be mundane because I'll also need such things when telling the story.

For now I'll focus on the modification of Saga to make the base structure of the mod (ships, weapons, wingman messages, interface, all that generic stuff) and I think I will release the campaign separately at a much later point. That way the community will have something to play with while I work on my Kilrathi campaign.

speaking of Kilrathi missions:
yesterday I created two mission templates (based on the Saga autonav template of course) for doing Kilrathi missions in Saga. They are not finished because they miss some small things (wingman messages for example) but I can use them to create some basic structures for my missions. I have the battlegroup and I can fly around using the autopilot. The first of the two is the big basic template which is pretty much a copy of the Saga autonav template, just with Kilrathi ships and Kilrathi ship names. The second one is a template for any missions that follow the typical WC3 patrol mission style.
I'll do another two templates and then I guess I'm ready to begin with the first two missions of my campaign because those have a fairly simple structure.


@Wojo:
I don't know about the openings into space, I don't think they make much sense inside a space ship. I always thought that Star Wars overused that trope. Fortunately we don't see those in any WC cutscenes I remember.
I agree with the sharp pointy things until a certain degree. It shouldn't look like in the Oblivion towers where you run into pointy things all the time. It is a war ship after all, and you don't want to get your warriors pierced by the walls when there is an explosion on the ship. War is already dangerous enough.
Safety rails fall in the same category, I think we see safety rails in the cutscenes of WC2 and WC3. I'll check that.

btw: for a bit of background inspiration (unfortunately not colored and not much details) I recommend watching the cutscenes of WC2+3 on youtube, most of them are available, for example here:

A bit later in the same video there is some interior on the Hhaifra. But of course this is a fairly big ship and those are Thrakath's rooms so that design may not be standard.

Also I thought we see some more in the scene where Melek talks with Thrakath about the bioweapons, but I can't find it right now.

EDIT:
about the colors again: Khasra wears green and no cape it seems, while Thrakhath wears a red cape and the emperor a blue one in WC2. interesting.
Do we know Khasra's and Melek's clans by the way?

 

[Wojo]

Tongue firmly imbedded in cheek...

 

[Aginor]

Ah, ok I get it!
(I'm slow sometimes)

 

[capi3101]

Do we know Khasra's and Melek's clans by the way?

I think it's been established that both are Kiranka, the same as the Emperor and Thrakhath. Melek certainly is, as Thrakhath's principal retainer. And unless I'm mistaken, Khasra was established as Thrakhath's cousin in Special Operations 1 (which was the reason Khasra attempted to assassinate Thrakhath; he might've then become next in line for the throne).

Me, I like the idea of the cult of Sivar using a particular color - it's not uncommon for religions to adopt particular colors; Catholicism and the color red is a good historical Earth example - but I also understand why you wouldn't want to establish this as a hard and fast rule. As for the capes, I think a cape is a cape is a cape; just the style of the aristocracy, with the color choice made by the wearer.

 

[Bandit LOAF]

I think it's been established that both are Kiranka, the same as the Emperor and Thrakhath. Melek certainly is, as Thrakhath's principal retainer. And unless I'm mistaken, Khasra was established as Thrakhath's cousin in Special Operations 1 (which was the reason Khasra attempted to assassinate Thrakhath; he might've then become next in line for the throne).

Khasra! I have heard enough of Khasra!

Actually I haven't. Khasra was certainly Kiranka. He was Khasra Redclaw, brother of Bakhtosh Redclaw from Wing Commander I, who was Kiranka. This, plus the fact that the clan symbol is apparently a red claw, is where the claim that Kiranka literally means Red Claw comes from. (You'd be forgiven for missing this. The mission where you shoot down Khasra in WC2 makes pretty much no notice of him... and the background about Bakhtosh being his brother comes only from his in-flight taunts. In fact, his appearance in combat in WC2 is so slight that the Special Operations disks pretended it never happened and have you fight him again!)

Melek is another ball of fish entirely. He is Thrakhath's senior retainer and that may mean he's Melek nar Kiranka in Wing Commander III because of how Kilrathi fealty works... but what his original clan might be is anyone's guess (Kirha, after all, was Kirha nar Ragitagha before he was sworn to Ralgha and then Hunter, and he still felt an assosciation with that clan years later.) Another thing to note which doesn't come up is that he's actually BARON Melek, per the CCG... so the question becomes: what clan is he Baron of?

Me, I like the idea of the cult of Sivar using a particular color - it's not uncommon for religions to adopt particular colors; Catholicism and the color red is a good historical Earth example - but I also understand why you wouldn't want to establish this as a hard and fast rule. As for the capes, I think a cape is a cape is a cape; just the style of the aristocracy, with the color choice made by the wearer.

One key thing to remember when figuring out Kilrathi colors is that their eyes don't work like ours. Kilrathi eyes are optimized for low light conditions and they're capable of seeing the infrared spectrum.

 

[Aginor]

Ahh, I lured LOAF into the thread!
Thanks for that detailed answer. Those things sure are interesting to know.

EDIT:
Caution! Wall of text ahead!

So... to the baron thing: I'm not sure what that title means to the Kilrathi, but here on earth a baron is one of the lesser nobles. I don't think a baron is a clan leader. If there are clan leaders (which I assume) there are not many of them (there are eight clans IIRC, each with billions of members). I recall two Kilrathi nobles with that title, Jukaga and Melek.
Judging by their behaviour (and the behavior of those who deal with them) I just can't believe they could be leaders of one of the clans. Those leaders are incredibly powerful and I would bet those are the only Kilrathi even Thrakath would treat respectful because it is very important to have their loyalty. Each of them has a "family" of billions of Kilrath behind him after all.


Note: The following is just a fiction, a theory that shows what could be possible. I will try to find proof for those but I guess I won't find any. Please stop reading until you see the next starry line if you think you will have to flame me if I write something you don't like.

***********************************************************************************************

So... if they use a similar system like the British do, we have could have the following titles (ordered by rank from left to right, ascending):
Baron, Viscount, Earl/Count, Marquess and Duke

Barons are the lowest rank in the high nobility. There are thousands of them. They control big cities on their clan home worlds or maybe planets, they are administrators who manage those parts of the infrastructure and of course the troops. They might control complete garrisons in war and are found almost everywhere, often as advisers to higher nobles.
-
(I'll leave Viscounts out, there always weren't that many on earth and the Kilrathi don't need them )
-
Earl/Count (The British call their own guys in such positions "Earl" and the rest "Count". I don't know why.)
They control multiple planets or star systems, having Barons who pledge loyalty to them, some may control several colonies. They may have seat in the "senate" (if the Kilrathi have something like that), and in war they control whole fleets of ships. The emperor may hold some of them "captive" on Kilrah, to make sure if their fleets work against him he can kill them.
-
(I'll leave Marquess out, for similar reasons as the Viscount)
-
A Duke controls a clan. He controls whole sectors and all the forces there. He is incredibly powerful and if I had to make a bet I would bet that he is not on Kilrah if he can avoid it. It is just too dangerous there. Those are the guys who tend to work against the Emperor secretly because they are the ones with the highest chance to become emperor themselves. And of course those might be the guys who wouldn't accept Melek's surrender (A Baron speaking for Kilrah?? WTF?? Unthinkable!) and those would be the ones fighting a civil war after the destruction of Kilrah (compare wars of the Diadochi in greek history). None of them is powerful enough to fight the Terrans alone, which would explain quite well why the war actually stopped after the destruction of Kilrah, but the Kilrathi fought each other.
-
Whoever is the Duke of the ruling clan is the Emperor. So Joor'rad nar Kiranka may have been Duke of Kiranka and Emperor of Kilrah.

Melek could have been a Baron with or without own "land", such things also exist in the British empire. Baron fits him, because he was an adviser, he was of high nobility, but he was weak enough to have great fear of Thrakath and if he wasn't Kiranka he was unimportant enough for his clan to send him there because he was expendable.

As for the Redclaws: This might actually be some kind of a family or sip name, and not the translation for a clan name. In order to organize their empire there must have been some sort of structure below the clans. I think it is rather likely that they could be called (ordered by size from left to right, ascending)
sips, families, lineages.

So maybe the complete name of a high noble could sound like:
(name) "nickname" nar (clan) (+ optional (lineage, sip, family)
"Joor'rad nar Kiranka, offspring of Mat'nak, from Graknala's sip of the Snakeskinners"

In this fictional name the family of Joor'rad took the name "Snakeskinners" after Joor'rad defeated the Varni (which are reptiles), so the family name may be based on some historical event where the family played the important role.
The sip name refers to a well-known ancestor who isn't more than a few generations away, in this case the former emperor and grandmother of Joor'rad named Graknala.
The lineage is a bit more abstract, in this case the name is made up and refers to some great hero of ancient times or something like that, and it may even be hard to prove that lineage. We see that in european history quite often, where somebody claims his great-great-grandfather was a cousin of the brother-in-law of the Emperor's niece.

***************************************************************

So why am I posting this, asking for a constructive discussion?
Well, the answer is that in the campaign I'm planning the player character is planned to not exactly be of the highest nobility, but other characters in the cast may be. He will get a higher position because he is a good pilot and shows honor and valor on the battlefield. His squad mates may come from different clans and families and stuff, and some of them are supposed to have a big mouth and gloat what noble lineage they have. Of course they will not like that lowly Kilrathi outdoing them. That will create some dramatic tension I hope.
But for that I will have to give them the possibility to gloat, and I think long titles may be one of the ways to do that.

And before you ask: I will not make up any names, sips, families or titles for any existing characters. They are that well-known that nobody will have to speak their title. Everybody knows them.

So what do you think? Good idea? Bad idea? and why?

 

[Aginor]

Argh, sorry for the double post, but something is wrong in my browser when I try to edit long posts....

In other news: I finally ordered the following Wing Commander books today:
- Action Stations
- End Run
- Fleet Action
- False Colors
- Freedom Flight

In which order should I read them and which ones contain the most information about Kilrathi culture?
I'm also reading various threads about Kilrathi culture, language and other Kilrathi-stuff here at the CIC at the moment.

And last but not least I have a request to the moderators:
Could you please split this thread into two separate ones so my Kilrathi culture questions and the discussion about them are separate from my Kilrathi interior design topic? After all this was supposed to be the thread where artists should post their sketches so we can discuss them.

 

[Quarto]

So... if they use a similar system like the British do, we have could have the following titles (ordered by rank from left to right, ascending): Baron, Viscount, Earl/Count, Marquess and Duke

I think this is a pretty difficult proposition to make. On the one hand, the fact that a Kilrathi title is translated into "baron" does suggest that their system of nobility bears some similarity to our own systems. I mean, the only reason to refer to a Kilrathi as a "baron" (rather than simply using the Kilrathi word) is if we are expected to associate such a Kilrathi with a human baron.

It is a mistake, however, to assume that a Kilrathi baron is just like a British baron of the present day. The system of noble ranks that we see today is not natural to the feudal system - it is in fact a relic, something that was left over after the feudal system as a whole collapsed. Originally, in the British Isles, the chief difference between a count and an earl and a thane was language - counts were created by the French-speaking William the Conqueror, earls were left from pre-Norman days of Saxon rule, and thane was a Scottish title. Similary, a duke, in pre-Norman England, would actually be an earl, the titles held the same significance but stemmed from different languages (and this also explains why the British today have earls, but do not have counts)... and what about barons in all this? As near as I can figure out after five minutes of research, "baron" was a kind of collective title that referred to all these ranks, to all the people who were beholden directly to the king, as opposed to the vassal of a vassal.

And of course, this is just the example of England that you started with. Why not look beyond, at the rest of Europe? Each country you look at, you'll be confused all over again . But ultimately, the important thing to remember is that our systems of nobility have degenerated, because we are (unfortunately) no longer a feudal society. The Kilrathi have remained feudal, and therefore, you must expect their systems (yes, plural! We should not assume the Kilrathi are a completely monolithic culture) of nobility to be very different to our systems of today. You need to look back to the middle ages.

As far as the Kilrathi system of nobility is concerned, we do know one thing - Baron Jukaga was in fact the head of his clan. Does this mean all the clan heads were barons? It actually does not - because of all the clan heads, he is the only one in that group referred to as a baron. So ultimately - do we know anything at all about the meaning of the term "baron"? It seems not .

 

[Aginor]

Well, from what I know the french and german systems are not vastly different to the one stated above.
In all cases I know of the Baron is either a noble with very little land (just a few villages or even just one village in many cases) or it is a title that is given to somebody that hasn't any land at all by the ruler, just to get him into nobility.

About the language thing: I also read an article about the earl/thane/count thing now, and it seems it is pretty the same as the german "Graf". It makes sense this way now.
The only weird thing that stays is the scottish thing with the missing duke/earl dichotomy, because it doesn't fit in. But it may be easy to explain based on the size and population of this region. Those guys were roughly as important as an earl (because they didn't have much people there) but had more land than some dukes in southern england.

And of course there are several people who have more than one of those titles. Here's a part of the list for Prince Charles, who is the Prince of Wales at the moment:
"Prince of Wales, Duke of Cornwall and Earl of Chester, Duke of Rothesay, Earl of Carrick, Baron of Renfrew, Lord of the Isles, Prince and Great Steward of Scotland" (the list goes on)
So he actually is a prince, two earls, two dukes, a baron, and he also has some fancy custom titles.

we are (unfortunately) no longer a feudal society.

What? I'm pretty happy this isn't the case actually.


I read some more about the clans, and I missed at least one important point: There are more clans than those eight mentioned. (The most obvious one being Hhallas), but the information that Jukaga was actually head of the Ki'ra clan is an interesting one because it shows one important thing I think: He made a grave mistake and ...wait for it.... he wasn't killed. He didn't even commit suicide. This is interesting since when you look at WC1 the Emperor killed his own son when he lost the Sivar. In my opinion Jukaga's mistake was much bigger but he was only exiled.
This tells me that heads of clans are in fact treated differently.

Also I think I read somewhere (not sure if that is canonical) that the Ki'ra clan is (despite being one of the most respected clans) one of the smaller ones. So if the Kilrathi really have titles based on controlled territory that would explain why he is a Baron.
That could also explain why his title is mentioned while we don't have titles for most other Kilrathi nobles: it is actually lower.
I admit that my last point is a bit far fetched though.

Or maybe everything is completely different to what I wrote above and titles are given completely random.
I wouldn't like that very much though because writing my story becomes much easier if I have some guidelines. That's why I'm gathering information and putting it together. As I already said in an earlier post: I don't want to make up wierd stuff that is inconsistent to existing facts, and trying to derive rules out of known facts seems the logical approach for that.

So while we cannot know what is "really" the case we can try to figure out things that at least aren't outright bullshit.
Anyway, I'm back to research, this theory needs at least one or two further iterations before I am halfway content with it.

EDIT: the disadvantage is that I'm still staring at my character list and thus can't really start with writing the story.... maybe I will use placeholders like "arrogant cat", "aggressive cat" and "slightly lethargic cat" until I have names, titles, ranks and background.

 

[capi3101]

EDIT: the disadvantage is that I'm still staring at my character list and thus can't really start with writing the story.... maybe I will use placeholders like "arrogant cat", "aggressive cat" and "slightly lethargic cat" until I have names, titles, ranks and background.

If you need some quick and dirty Cat names, I do have a Kilrathi onomastikon up at the WCRPG site; page is at http://wcrpg.wikia.com/wiki/2.2.2:_Kilrathi ; you'll have to scroll down a little ways to get to it. Granted, what's there is my interpretation of Kilrathi naming structure, but if it's helpful to you, by all means use it.

I also found a page on the Cats done by the Aces Club at http://www.thegreenlanterncorps.com/wclegacy/kilrathi-faq.html when I was doing my initial research for WCRPG. For the most part it uses canonical sources for their data (the later stuff follows the Aces timeline, but if you steer clear of it you'll probably be okay). It does contain more information on the Clans.

 

[Aginor]

Well, those are at least a source of inspiration. Thanks!
I started with some general things about the characters now, names and rough descriptions of their appearance and personality. I just had to get away from the mission builder for a while (that can be tiring as hell, I'm still working on the mission templates so when I create the actual missions out of those I can focus on the real mission design instead of technical things).

 

[Bandit LOAF]

Ahh, I lured LOAF into the thread!

Haha, sorry, I've been distracted lately. And I'm never good at following the fan projects forum! But this is exactly the sort of thing I like to talk about.

So... to the baron thing: I'm not sure what that title means to the Kilrathi, but here on earth a baron is one of the lesser nobles. I don't think a baron is a clan leader. If there are clan leaders (which I assume) there are not many of them (there are eight clans IIRC, each with billions of members). I recall two Kilrathi nobles with that title, Jukaga and Melek.

A Baron is the head of a Kilrathi clan. Jukaga, for instance, was head of the Ki'ra clan. Authority in the Kilrathi government goes from the Emperor to the Crown Prince to a collection of eight Barons, who represent the noble clans.

There are far more than eight clans total, though! There's eight noble "ruling" clans, and then thousands/millions/billions of lesser clans.

Also I think I read somewhere (not sure if that is canonical) that the Ki'ra clan is (despite being one of the most respected clans) one of the smaller ones. So if the Kilrathi really have titles based on controlled territory that would explain why he is a Baron.

No, that's not right. The Ki'ra are the second in line in terms of nobility. They were the other major faction in the Kilrathi civil war that put the Kiranka in power.

That could also explain why his title is mentioned while we don't have titles for most other Kilrathi nobles: it is actually lower.

The other clan leaders are all Barons, most if not all of them are named in Fleet Action (and we see some of their predecessors in Action Stations.)

As far as the Kilrathi system of nobility is concerned, we do know one thing - Baron Jukaga was in fact the head of his clan. Does this mean all the clan heads were barons? It actually does not - because of all the clan heads, he is the only one in that group referred to as a baron. So ultimately - do we know anything at all about the meaning of the term "baron"? It seems not.

That's not right, Fleet Action actually refers to the others as Barons. "Qar'ka Baron of the Qarg clan," "Baron Ka'ta of the Kurutak clan" and so on. The Wing Commander 3 novel also refers to clan leaders as Barons as a general term.

 

[Malcolm Reynolds]

If you need some quick and dirty Cat names, I do have a Kilrathi onomastikon up at the WCRPG site; page is at http://wcrpg.wikia.com/wiki/2.2.2:_Kilrathi ; you'll have to scroll down a little ways to get to it. Granted, what's there is my interpretation of Kilrathi naming structure, but if it's helpful to you, by all means use it.

I also found a page on the Cats done by the Aces Club at http://www.thegreenlanterncorps.com/wclegacy/kilrathi-faq.html when I was doing my initial research for WCRPG. For the most part it uses canonical sources for their data (the later stuff follows the Aces timeline, but if you steer clear of it you'll probably be okay). It does contain more information on the Clans.

I'm curious where all of this information came from. Particularly the stuff about the Kilrathi languages. Was this all in the novelizations or just made up by fans? I haven't read all of the novels so I was just curious.