AMIA ARCHIVE • View topic

So I have been working on a Name and wanted you guys/gals imput. First name is Qil'zyne. I'm combining Qil-which can mean slave and zyne- which can mean hunter. Should i keep it like that? Or remove the Apostrophe all together? Or add more. Ex: Qilzyne or Qil'zy'ne. Should any of the letters besides the Q be capitalized?

Last Name: Auvry'Alean'und. My char will be niece to the Matron Mother of House Alean'und, thats why I added Avury- Blood of. How should i write this out?

There's no common agreement on stuff like punctuation and capitalization. You should arrange either 1.) however you like it best, or 2.) however your matron mother tells you to. Those are the only two opinions that could possibly matter.

Last name is generally not including the relationship to the matron, those of the blood are usually just Alean'und or can be d'Alean'und... Vilrath has all her members as d'Vilrath because her name is taken from a drow word meaning Malice, Alean'und already means The Noble Line of the Spider's Kiss... which is appropriate for where they're from, same as Vilrath's.... relationships like niece, nephew, daughter, son are usually kept out of names, though First (Ust'Dalharil) and Second Daughters (Drada'Dalharil) are titles, not just relationships, any others are just tools for the matron to use. Though the First Consort is typically also the Ilharn.

Cool Thanks

If you genuinely want some random person's opinion: the simpler the better. Throughout Amian history, drow have been guilty of overcomplicating things and wanking over non-canon online translators. Even the distinction of [House Name] and d'[House Name], for nobles and common retainers respectively, is an innovation that came around maybe in 2007 or 2008 and just complicated things unnecessarily.

Apostrophes usually look retarded. I regret using one for my character. And they don't seem to be all that common in canon drow names, either. If you look at the dramatis personae of WotSQ, for example, they seem to appear in a minority if names.

So if you want to look good, Qilzyne Alean'und is what I would pick. The apostrophe doesn't really add anything to it, just makes it harder to spell.

IronAngel wrote:

If you genuinely want some random person's opinion: the simpler the better. Throughout Amian history, drow have been guilty of overcomplicating things and wanking over non-canon online translators. Even the distinction of [House Name] and d'[House Name], for nobles and common retainers respectively, is an innovation that came around maybe in 2007 or 2008 and just complicated things unnecessarily.

Apostrophes usually look retarded. I regret using one for my character. And they don't seem to be all that common in canon drow names, either. If you look at the dramatis personae of WotSQ, for example, they seem to appear in a minority if names.

So if you want to look good, Qilzyne Alean'und is what I would pick. The apostrophe doesn't really add anything to it, just makes it harder to spell.

Basically this. The only time I use apostrophes is to mark breaks in pronunciation, such that zyne (zuh-eye-nuh) and zy'ne (zuh-eye-neh) would be pronounced distinctively. Otherwise it's just clutter.

It's a small thing, and far from the perfect method, but it's better than sploshing them about everywhere because a translator told you to. I make a habit of not dealing with people who are stingy with "lore-correct" names; as long as it sounds foreign..

Rule of cool.

That is all.

Skim the translators for some cool syllables and then tack on some made-up ones. That's how I do with my Elves usually, sometimes entirely made-up, sometimes 'inspired'. Longer Drow names tend to sound like a Turkish cat that's coughing up a steel wool yarnball very quickly, you might have more fun making up something more concise and smooth-sounding.

Most people at least OOC will probably just call her Qil anyway, and ICly and especially being a female character she will most often just be reffered to by title, so it isn't too big of a deal.

But Qilzyne looks much nicer so I'd go with that, apostrophes on short names ussually just look weird.

The Great Equalizer wrote:

apostrophes on short names usually just look weird.

Well, Yes and no. That's all opinions. It all depends on how you want to go about, it's the beauty of it, the apostrophes can be added, or not depending on a Drow player's own preferences, I myself, had played a drow, "Izz'nar Hun'myr", most IC on the surface not drow called him. 'Darkie' or 'Izz' most people ooc called him Izzy, most dark elves called him Juluk or some of the drow males he ever so casualled glared or threatened called him Jabbuk.

It's all about how you want to spell it out, the apostrophes for dark elves names are like two parts "Izz' is one part, meaning Hidden, mask, or masked, and "Nar", means Adept, ghost, or spirit. Izz'nar together, in how I wish is. "Masked Ghost".

Ask someone who knows aloooot about Drow, and i mean someone who actually can speak drow as like a second language.. >.> I know there out there, after all. those translators had to come from somewhere. Theres my rant for today, Cheers.

And remember,~ Illith'vir Tlu malla.~ :twisted:

Tel'void wrote:

Ask someone who knows aloooot about Drow, and i mean someone who actually can speak drow as like a second language.. >.> I know there out there, after all. those translators had to come from somewhere.

Pretty sure there is no canon drow language and the translators are just made-up words. Perhaps from a Dragon Magazine article, with each website homebrewing some more. At least they used to have small vocabularies for different settings and races when I read it in the late 90s. There's certainly no grammar or syntax.

Yeah there is some canonical stuff but it really isn't a proper language at all, and a fair amount has been basically homebrewed to make it work, which is why you will come across a lot of different translations and ways of writing stuff.

Also for the record, I kind of am a person who knows a lot about drow (which I know may sound conceited).

It's so far from a language it's just not funny. If you're being super mega charitable you can call it a constructed English dialect, and that's if you actually managed to complete it since it always seems to be used with identical grammar to English (and doesn't even have all the function articles!) except maybe dative and possibly ablatives.

The Great Equalizer wrote:

I kind of am a person who knows a lot about drow (which I know may sound conceited).

^_^ There we go, not conceited in the slightest, atleast i don't think so, I only ever use one translator if I need to, I occcationally skim around and noticed most of them have diffrent words for one, so yeah. I was just trying to help XD and I rarely do that on the forums, infact, I lied, this would've been the first attempt :3

To be fair as for the naming thing I was just stating my own preference, the method of using the apostrophes as a way to break up the "words" of the name is a fine method too. Although when doing that I like to use it to break up which words are meant to go together in the name and which are separate "words" or "thoughts". But really as long as it looks and sounds good to you, that is generally more important.

Drow Name

Who is online