Motto

Combine Mottos are pithy phrases which usually embody a particular group's goals, intentions and functionality. Combine Mottos are always written in Latin, and may be humourous or pretentious, depending on what they are assigned to.

Combine Central and both Arms are all assigned a motto, appearing alongside the ASCII logo on the Combine thread on the Stellar Dawn Official Forums.

Combine Mottos as a Weapon Against Pretentious People
Mottos see most of their use as a humourous, satirical take on the standard, pretentious Latin motto, used by every organisation looking to sound smarter than they actually are. Such organisation's leaders usually spend all of 4 minutes on Google using the search term 'Latin quotes' or 'Roman military quotes' and take the first pretentious thing less than 5 words long that seems pronounceable to their less than substantial minds.

The Combine does not credit any clan with a pretentious Latin motto with an overabundance of brains, but is also somewhat guilty of pretentious Latin mottos. The Combine's, Combine Central's and the Scholarly Arm's are in the standard vein of clan Latin mottos and are the closest the Combine will ever stray to truly pretentious.

The Combine
"Ad astra, per Consortium' - "To the stars, through the Combine"

Combine Central
"Scientia et Suffriagium" - "Knowledge and Assistance"

Militant Arm
"Sine stercus tauri" - "No Bullshit"

Scholarly Arm
"Memoria et Mutatio" - "Memory and Change"

Trivia
The word 'pretentious' was used 5 times over the course of 2 paragraphs, because IVIilitarus was too lazy to go to Thesaurus.com.