There's also the little matter of getting Steve to accept it as a theme. I think DF material is more likely to be well received than B12. Cause if you allow B12, then you should allow a 4chan theme, a Something Awful theme, a Kotaku theme, etc. etc. etc.
We don't want to go there.
I'm liking the idea of the Guard positions being the ground troops, and the army positions being the naval ranks (after all, in Aurora it's the Navy that does the real fighting).
I'd do:
Army:
4: Captain of the Guard
3: Royal Guardsman
2: Sheriff
1: Hammerer
Navy:
7: King
6: General
5: Champion
4: Militia Commander
3: Militia Captain
2: Marksdwarf
1: Recruit
Scientist:
1: Engineer (since Siege Engineering would be just as revelant as Mechanics. Maybe dwarven starships are just really, REALLY big siege engines)
Civilian Administrator:
1: Noble (since civ admins fill a variety of slots in Aurora, including Diplomat and Xenologist)
What form of government would a good DF/Aurora civ have? Ordered Socialism? Hive Mind Race? Insane Dictator (the player)?
Star system names could be a long list of randomly generated fortress names, with a handful of the most prominent historical forts at the top of the list. Boatmurdered could be the first one.
IIRC, themes don't determine individual ship names, but rather class names. The player determines the ship names when the class is designed, either from one of the many preset lists, or you just choose the name when you start construction (otherwise it's "Classname 1", "Classname 2", etc.) So I don't think thread names are all that appropriate, especially if we're angling away from a B12 theme and more towards a DF theme. Probably should be 20-30 items in the classname list. Biome names? Civilization names? Maybe do the random fort list for planets, and the notable LP fortress names as ship classes? There's probably at least 20-30 lurking in the forums...
Admittedly, a
Boatmurdered-class dreadnought would probably be terrifying, what with its 80cm elephant guns and magma cannonades.