The meaning of the sign

Yea, English is a b*tch. I'm coming to unerstand that as I'm teaching English as a second language in the afternoons at my new job.

The Mercykillers name has more to do with 'killing of mercy' than 'killing for mercy'. That is, they reject the concept of mercy, not that they kill for mercy's sake, at least that's what I read into their description in the original PSCS. Clueless has an interesting point about the layered meaning, however. Truth be told, that's one thing I kind of like about english, especially in poetry, where several meanings for the same set of words can make things really interesting.

"Sign of One" could be best decoded as being "Symbol of the Single" like the number 1, or any symbol representing one, like I in roman numerals, which is also "I" as in myself. "Signer" is not only a name taken from the faction name, but can be interpreted as "one who signs" meaning they each draw their own personal reality on the face of the multiverse.

"Bleaker" similarly is taken from the faction name "The Bleak Cabal". However "Bleaker" in english would mean "more bleak than ... ", and it is odd in the extreme to use the word as a noun. Bleak is an adjective (desciption), not a verb (action), so "Bleaker" in the sense of "one who bleaks" is really messed up. Of course, it's all just words, and the Bleakers would argue that they only mean what you make them mean anyway.

I know how hard translations can be... I translated most of it (including some cant, which was even harder) into german for my own group. Some faction names are nearly impossible. Especially if they should also sound "good" in german, which is even harder. If you do a correct translation, you end up with ten syllable monsters.

"More precise" isn't how I would call it. German often has just as many meanings per word. However, they are different.  Try simple words like "Hahn", which can mean "rooster" or "Faucet". Or a really famous one, the word "Geist", which can be translated as "ghost", "mind", "spirit", and a variety of similar ones. It also doesn't help that german and english in fact share many words, but that in the time since the two languages split, they evolved different meanings. So, well, I try my best, but some things are just so badly sounding when translated that I have to make up completely new names. (Lord Winsome in Desire and the Dead was perhaps the hardest translation I ever saw in my life. Just because there's no word for "winsome" in german that is even remotely useable as a name.)

Sign as in "symbol" or, better yet, as in "omen." As in "sign of the apocalypse." A sign in this meaning is something an oracle would identify which heralds a portentious upcoming event. Like if the sky starts raining blood, that's a sign.

The faction is the Sign of One. They are the sign that proves that they are the One. They prove it with their superior creativity.

The One is the person that creates the multiverse with their imagination. Many Signers believe that they, personally, are the One. Others believe everyone with an imagination is the One, because everyone is the center of the multiverse. Others believe that the One has yet to be identified; it's someone in the Sign of One faction, but no one knows who. A group called the Will of the One believes the One is a mad bariaur named Terwolfe.

"One" in this context means "person." One person, one individual. Except there may be many Ones.

A Bleaker is someone who is bleak. Synonyms include grim, gloomy, pessimistic. Bleecker Street is a famous street in Manhattan, but I'm not sure there's a connection. There's a lyric in a Marcy Playground song, though, that might be relevant:

"And all the whores on Bleecker Street, they wear a dusty grin/caused by the drugs they take to relieve 'em of their sins."

Bleecker Street was once a center of New York bohemia; the "Bleakniks," grim poets in Sigil inspired by the real life "Beatnik" movement, would have been at home on Bleecker Street at one time.

It's plural. You would say "The Dead" if you're referring to the faction or "one of the Dead" if you're just talking about one faction member.

It means people. Factions are open to every race.

Literally, it means someone who kills for mercy, but in the case of the faction the meaning is ironic; the Mercykillers kill without mercy.

I really like the name "Demiurghi" for the Godsmen.

One thing that hasn't been brought up is that many of the words and phrases that are giving you difficulty are nicknames. There is no inherant meaning in "signers", "the dead", "chaosmen", they are just cant phrases. "Chaosmen" in this context simply means "member(s) of the xaositects" and "signer" is simply "member of the Sign of One". I would imagine translating cant would especially difficult - it words can probably translated directly but lose all (effective) meaning in that translation (I can only imagine how hard it would be to effectively translate "sodkillers"). I'm Australian so English is my first (and only) language, and I had never encountered many of the cant words, although I would guess it is probably easier for someone whose speaks English to quickly pick up their meaning. Some words or phrases would be easy to translate I'd imagine (such as "Knight of the post" - it has no immediate analagous English meaning, it is just a phrase that means "thief"), and some that would be very difficult, as highlighted in posts above.

So in this context I believe "Bleaker" is simply slang (and short hand) for saying "member of the Bleak Cabal" (although Rips post makes me think there is some historic or literative perspective that I am missing here). My research skills died long ago - I would be interested to hear of any deeper meaning orhistory behind phrases such as Knight of the Post.

I think "sodkiller" is complicated because sod is unflattering cant for "a person". The implication just being "we kill people". Although, given the cant involved, it probably refers more to cleaning up the city - sods not being anything like berks or cutters, and definitely nowhere near bloods.

http://www.babylon.com/definition/Knight_of_the_post/English

knight of the post, one who gained his living by giving false evidence on trials, or false bail; hence, a sharper in general. "a knight of the post, quoth he, for so i am termed; a fellow that will swear you anything for twelve pence."

I don't know if this helps at all, but Euthanasia (and assumedly eutanasia as well) comes from the Greek eu- (good) + thanatos (death), which is pretty close to "mercy kill" already.  Are there any similar Italian words or roots you could use for the names of the Sons of Mercy and Sodkillers in an Italian translation instead?  Then you could use Eutanasisti and still keep the history of the name as well.