RPGnet <http://www.rpg.net> 	
<http://www.rpg.net/slib/ads/forward-ad.php?nextURL=http://www.drivethrurpg.com/catalog/index.php&imageURL=http://graphics.drivethrurpg.com/images/dtrpgbanner728x90.gif>


	Reviews <http://www.rpg.net/reviews/> 	Forums <http://forum.rpg.net>
News & Press <http://www.rpg.net/news+reviews/press.phtml> 	Columns &
Info <http://www.rpg.net/columns/index.phtml> 	RPG Wiki
<http://wiki.rpg.net> 	RPG Shop <http://shop.rpg.net> 	
<http://www.rpg.net/members/>


      Wind in the Flowers: Re-inventing a Game


    Naming Conventions

*R. Sean Borgstrom*
March 6, 2002
	
The principal characters of *Nobilis* come from all over the world. A
fair number of the secondary characters come from outside the world
entirely. The first edition had an unfortunate bias towards American and
made-up names, which didn't properly reflect the setting's
cosmopolitanism. Fortunately, the new edition has roughly twice the
wordcount, which gave me plenty of space to redress this error.

My primary resource for most of this was the Onomastikon
<http://web.archive.org/web/19990429014413/http://www.fairacre.demon.co.uk/>;
secondary resources included Gustav Davidson's excellent *A Dictionary
of Angels* and the even more amazing Saul M. Olyan's *A Thousand
Thousands Served Him: Exegesis and the Naming of Angels in Ancient
Judaism*. I didn't get to actually use that last book much, but that
/will/ change. It was very pleasant to sort through thousands of angel
descriptions with traditional names when adding new angels or fallen
angels to the game.

In addition, I associate a sense of awe with the names and descriptions
of classical angelology; I also drew on M. Davidson's book when I wished
to discuss celestial phenomena, such as the things the Creator bound to
make Creation. (For reference, these were Azbogah, the Radiance that
Destroys the Unrighteous, in whose heart the Creator planted the tree of
worlds; N'mosnikttiel, the Fire that Swallows Worlds, raw material for
the creation of the angels; and Narsinha, the Lightning that Dances on
the Surface of the Abyss, reshaped to create the wall around Creation.)

Some specific setting features required careful thought as to their
names. Ananda, discussed in a previous column <wind31jan02.html>,
appeared as a concept long before he had a name. We needed something
that would properly express the idea of "hope for the world". Bruce and
I wrestled with this for some time before finding something properly
suited to a conceptually key bright spot in the setting.

Ultimately, we raided Madeline L'Engle, who probably raided Hindu names,
for "that joy in existence without which the universe would fall apart
and collapse". Alternatives---naming him in ways that reflected simpler
joy, or beauty, or the darker side of his nature---didn't suffice to
capture what that name can: that beauty is vital in this world.

Similarly, the name of the divine entity embodying the Third Age (the
current Age of the World) needed to say something fundamental about the
setting. Here, I had more room for subtlety, as the Imperatrix of the
Third Age is not a major character in the setting; I named her Attaris
Ebrôt Appêka, in part for Attaris, the angel of winter. These are the
closing days of the *Nobilis* world; either it will end entirely, or a
new Spring will rise.

*Nobilis* has vast numbers of sample characters, which gave me a fairly
free hand doing some basic diversification. Augusta Valentina, Bran
Gainor, Cornelia Jansdr, Dyemma Insakovs, Fayola Osiagobare, Halland
Geirr and Ienari Namika-in are some of the new sample characters;
Nephele Nikolaidhis and Helissent de Reymes appear in the sample
campaign; Jori Hullis, Kip Narekatski, and Rannen Yedidyah are quoted as
"authors" of various related fictional texts. A large number of Indian
names (including a few Hindu gods and demons) appear in a frame story
running through the book.

Looking this over in retrospect, Chinese and Islamic names and probably
a few others are underrepresented in the text; I should work on
balancing that in the supplements. In any event, the basic design
principle was very straightforward: try to scatter the new characters
over a variety of nationalities, so that the game doesn't feel
landlocked in America (or even England!)

The most thoroughly foreign characters in *Nobilis* are the Excrucians,
who rode into our reality from the Lands Beyond Creation. To name them
properly, I needed a strong, regular naming convention with a distinctly
alien flavor. Simply foreign names would not suffice. Establishing
foreign names as alien, regardless of which nationality I chose, would
undermine the basic concept that the Nobilis come from all over the
world; that, in their context, European, African, Asian, and all other
modern names are pretty much "local".

If I were Tolkien, of course, the solution would be simple: invent a
logically coherent language without direct derivation from any human
tongue, and name the Excrucians in that. Failing to mysteriously turn
into Tolkien when I twisted my power ring, I instead turned to history.

The ancient world has some extremely cool names, some of which I have
swiped for other uses---Idri-mi, Texcoyo, and Nabushezibanni among
them---but the best-fitting names came primarily from medieval times.
I'm not 100% certain why, but my theory is that the really ancient names
have their own baggage. Even though I wouldn't recognize Nabushezibanni
as a Hittite name offhand, it has associations of that whole
Babylonian-region ancient world thing going on. Similarly, even if you
don't guess that Texcoyo's an Aztec name, it probably evokes some
ancient American tribal associations.

Maybe that's just me.

In any event, medieval Europe actually has some very interesting names
that don't fall into the typical fantasy mold. The very first name to
come out of this search was Genseric---a Vandal name, technically. I'm
not that fond of characters without surnames; it feels incomplete to me,
and somewhat like the characters are trying to be media stars. So I
stole a last name from another barbarian tribe, the Dacii; thus,
Genseric Dace.

I rather liked the result, but soon enough I had to make more Excrucian
names. Here, I ran into a problem: I had nine more Vandal names, all
male, most of which sounded more or less like Genseric, and only a
handful of other barbarian tribes from the right era. (Sueves, Avars,
Alans, and Rugians.) I was not immediately thrilled with the names
Gailamir Sueve, Gunderic Avar, Gaiseric Alan, and Hilderic Rugian.

This forced a branching out into other names from medieval Europe:
Orderic, a Frankish name; Raginhart, Germanic; Euphrasia and Marozia,
Byzantine; Teja, Gothic; Scelto, Italian; and so forth. A few were
atypical, if they sounded right; Phasael mery-Harumaph, for example, is
assembled from a Palestinian first name, an Egyptian name-element, and
the game term Harumaph, originally found in a web angelological reference.

Finding last names was generally difficult at this stage of history. I
had originally hoped to branch out from the basic concept used for
Genseric Dace---whose surname was historically tribal rather than
personal---and build most last names out of appropriate regions or
social groups. Thus, Orderic Neustry, name drawn from Neustria.
Ultimately, for lack of appropriately cool region names, I was forced to
scrounge, using other first names from the period as surnames in order
to build functional antagonist names such as Teja Heimerich, Euphrasia
Savinot, and Raginhart Tribunas.

All this, of course, reflects ultimately back on the setting. It subtly
influenced me, writing new material on the Excrucians, to know that they
take their bynames from Creation. It also affected my writing to know
that they disdain modern appellations and sift history for names
instead. I'm not wholly certain of the implications, but it changes the
way I feel about them in my head; and such effects spread throughout the
game.

R. Sean


      What do you think? <http://www.rpg.net/pf/list.php?f=88>

Go to forum! <http://www.rpg.net/pf/list.php?f=88>
 Go to Top <http://www.rpg.net/pf/list.php?f=88>  |  New Topic
<http://www.rpg.net/pf/post.php?f=88>  |  View Threads
<http://www.rpg.net/pf/list.php?f=88&collapse=0>  |  Search
<http://www.rpg.net/pf/search.php?f=88> 

 Topics 	Author  	Date 	Latest Reply
 James and the Small Caps
<http://www.rpg.net/pf/read.php?f=88&i=81&t=81> (2) new 	Kibo 
08-20-2002 16:29  	02-10-2003 01:23 new
 Art <http://www.rpg.net/pf/read.php?f=88&i=77&t=77> (1) new 	Lxndr 
04-26-2002 07:36  	04-26-2002 07:36 new
 The Original Nobilis Club
<http://www.rpg.net/pf/read.php?f=88&i=76&t=76> (3) new 	Bret Gillan 
04-17-2002 11:28  	03-17-2003 17:48 new
 Questions & Thoughts
<http://www.rpg.net/pf/read.php?f=88&i=64&t=64> (3) new 	Pyske 
03-20-2002 18:31  	05-01-2003 13:03 new
 Noble Buddhism?
<http://www.rpg.net/pf/read.php?f=88&i=61&t=61> (9) new 	Tlaloc 
03-20-2002 12:17  	12-10-2004 01:20 new
 Noble Suicide <http://www.rpg.net/pf/read.php?f=88&i=58&t=58> (9) new
Eric Christian Berg  	03-20-2002 07:43  	01-18-2005 16:27 new
 Art Notes <http://www.rpg.net/pf/read.php?f=88&i=54&t=54> (4) new 	R.
Sean Borgstrom  	03-14-2002 16:31  	03-21-2002 03:44 new
 Ack...you just lost my sale
<http://www.rpg.net/pf/read.php?f=88&i=45&t=45> (10) new 	SteveD 
03-14-2002 04:06  	03-15-2002 06:29 new
 Onomastikon working URL
<http://www.rpg.net/pf/read.php?f=88&i=36&t=36> (4) new 	Jorge
Hernández  	03-06-2002 12:51  	08-20-2002 16:10 new
 Why do angels change names ?
<http://www.rpg.net/pf/read.php?f=88&i=33&t=33> (10) new 	philippe
tromeur  	03-06-2002 10:13  	12-10-2004 01:34 new
 R. Sean, some examples?
<http://www.rpg.net/pf/read.php?f=88&i=32&t=32> (3) new 	Arref 
03-05-2002 08:17  	03-13-2002 20:28 new
 Sounds great, BUT...
<http://www.rpg.net/pf/read.php?f=88&i=28&t=28> (2) new 	Kane 
02-27-2002 16:43  	02-27-2002 17:30 new
 Sort of backwards?
<http://www.rpg.net/pf/read.php?f=88&i=21&t=21> (8) new 	Eric Finley 
02-20-2002 14:25  	02-28-2002 09:35 new
 Programmer nature slips out!
<http://www.rpg.net/pf/read.php?f=88&i=20&t=20> (2) new 	Sean
McCarthy  	02-20-2002 13:18  	02-21-2002 10:30 new
 Object Lesson Damage
<http://www.rpg.net/pf/read.php?f=88&i=15&t=15> (1) new 	Darren
Miguez  	02-13-2002 12:45  	02-13-2002 12:45 new
 How about this?
<http://www.rpg.net/pf/read.php?f=88&i=12&t=12> (2) new 	Kristian
Lund  	02-13-2002 11:30  	02-14-2002 01:17 new
 Now, this was strange!
<http://www.rpg.net/pf/read.php?f=88&i=9&t=9> (7) new 	access.denied 
02-13-2002 07:44  	02-16-2002 21:44 new
 Briefs on the other two?
<http://www.rpg.net/pf/read.php?f=88&i=5&t=5> (5) new 	Eric Finley 
01-31-2002 18:39  	02-13-2002 10:36 new
 Forum now works <http://www.rpg.net/pf/read.php?f=88&i=4&t=4> (1) new
Sandy Antunes  	01-31-2002 17:36  	01-31-2002 17:36 new
 limited series <http://www.rpg.net/pf/read.php?f=88&i=1&t=1> (2) new
Sandy Antunes  	01-21-2002 17:41  	01-31-2002 17:36 new

 Go to Top <http://www.rpg.net/pf/list.php?f=88>  |  New Topic
<http://www.rpg.net/pf/post.php?f=88>  |  View Threads
<http://www.rpg.net/pf/list.php?f=88&collapse=0>  |  Search
<http://www.rpg.net/pf/search.php?f=88> 
	
 Newer Messages
<http://www.rpg.net/pf/list.php?f=88&t=81&a=1&>  |  Older Messages
<http://www.rpg.net/pf/list.php?f=88&t=1&a=2&> 

------------------------------------------------------------------------

    * Editing, Development, and Production
      </news+reviews/columns/wind27mar02.html>
      March 27, 2002
    * Affiliations </news+reviews/columns/wind20mar02.html>
      March 20, 2002
    * How to be a Hollyhock God </news+reviews/columns/wind13mar02.html>
      March 13, 2002
    * Naming Conventions </news+reviews/columns/wind06mar02.html>
      March 6, 2002
    * Art Notes </news+reviews/columns/wind27feb02.html>
      February 27, 2002
    * Dynamic Nobilis </news+reviews/columns/wind20feb02.html>
      February 20, 2002
    * Systems Change </news+reviews/columns/wind13feb02.html>
      February 13, 2002
    * Treachery </news+reviews/columns/wind06feb02.html>
      February 6, 2002
    * The Emperor to Come </news+reviews/columns/wind31jan02.html>
      January 31, 2002
    * The Changing of the Guard </news+reviews/columns/wind21jan02.html>
      January 21, 2002 


      Other columns </news+reviews/columns.html> at RPGnet

[ Read FAQ <http://forum.rpg.net/faq.php> | Subscribe to RSS
<http://www.rpg.net/rss.phtml> | Contact Us <mailto:www@rpg.net> |
Advertise with Us <http://www.rpg.net/ads/info.phtml> ]

Copyright © 1996-2006 RPGnet & individual authors, All Rights Reserved
RPGnet® is a registered trademark of Skotos Tech Inc., all rights reserved.