Lunar Names

[Jon Hunter]

Has anything ever been listed which looks at Lunar Names in depth?

I can see some ealry roman influences but they seem to have been toned down now, are there nay other sources of real world cultures to pilfer from?

[Stew Stansfield]

If New Pelorian isn't Latin, then how can brave Orlanthi revolutionaries daub LUNARES EUNT DOMUS in woad across Temples of the Reaching Moon?

Pah!

[Noita]

http://www.atour.com/education/assyriannames.html

I have occassionaly used these and latinish names. The latter normally for in game gm jokes.

I have seen threads on this topic in the past

Edited January 13, 2017 by Iskallor

[Baelor]

I have been using a combination of Persian and Latin names. My thinking being that Dara Happan was "Persian" and Pelorian was "Latin". mostly though, I have been doing this because my imperial armor and gear is a blend of Late Roman and Sassinid Persian.

[David Scott]

Pavis GtA page 15 gives example male and female names, but does say "Depends on their homeland". Not an in depth list, but may be worth a peek. 

[Mankcam]

I tend to think of Darra Happan & Pelorian culture being heavily influenced by the ancient Achaemenid Empire, the 'First Persian Empire'.

However the Lunar Way has brought a lot of new influences, and I portray this by using mid-period Roman Empire (late Republic / early Imperium) military trappings for Lunar Imperial Garrisons. Lunar civilians tend to dress in ancient Persian garb, yet the Imperial Army presents itself very Roman-like styles at times.

I would tend to go with more Persian sounding names ratherr than Latin, otherwise I would find a tendency to portray the Lunars as too Romanesque, and it wouldn't feel authentically Gloranthan anymore, the Lunars would be just Roman stand-ins. Having soldiers with Roman Legionarie style armour with exotically  braided hairstyles and having ancient Persian sounding names tend to evoke more flavour than straight Roman copy-jobs.

You could alway mix things up a bit by having Roman sounding first names, and Persian sounding surnames, or vice versa. Whatever works, I guess, but I wouldn't go overboard on Latin names like Marcus, Pontius, etc otherwise it will sound like you are just hamming the Romans up too much.

This site may be helpful for names: http://www.behindthename.com/submit/names/usage/ancient-persian

 

 

 

Edited January 14, 2017 by Mankcam

[Ali the Helering]

I have tended to use a broad mix, and to 'whip up' a blend from that.  Into the mix goes Greek, Latin, Iranian and Hittite.  What comes out sometimes HAS to be thrown away, but sometimes can be quite useable.

[Mankcam]

Yes definitely add Hittite and the occasional Greek name to the list, perhaps throw the Latin out altogether.

 

[soltakss]

7 minutes ago, Mankcam said:

Yes definitely add Hittite and the occasional Greek name to the list, perhaps throw the Latin out altogether.

 

Or keep the Latin names but remove the suffixes (E.g. -us) so they sound different.

[jajagappa]

3 hours ago, soltakss said:

Or keep the Latin names but remove the suffixes (E.g. -us) so they sound different.

Except that per FS, the standard male suffixes for Dara Happans (and thus many Lunars) are -as, -us, -um, and the standard female suffix is -a.

[TRose]

  So if you use Roman names  is Bigus Dickus a Common Lunar name?

 So what have the Lunar ever done for us.

Edited January 14, 2017 by TRose

[Jon Hunter]

9 hours ago, Mankcam said:

Yes definitely add Hittite and the occasional Greek name to the list, perhaps throw the Latin out altogether.

 

Looking at the names used in many official sources so far, Latin is a big factor, I think its something that is being written out if possible, but its definitley there in RQ2 and 3 era lunar names.

[Mankcam]

I can't remember seeing too many Latin-like names for the Lunars in my RQ2 stuff, but I'ld have to take a look at my old Pavis and Big Rubble books to check.

There was definitely a Roman undercurrent to the Lunar portrayal in RQ2, but it was not as dominant as it was in later era products.

I think some of that Roman flavour came from how they behaved. Lunars were very 'official' in how they handled their business of governing provinces etc, with those licences for entering The Rubble, and having permanent garrisons in Pavis etc. I think a lot of that remains unchanged with contemporary depictions.

In my brain back then the Lunars seemed like a cross between Romans and Hittites, in equal measure. 

But then again I also thought that Sartarites may have been Hellenic-influenced, until the RQ3 Glorantha box sundered that for me ( which I guess is why I am happy with the current depiction of Orlanthi as 'Mycenaeans-Thracians')

I suspect the Lunar 'Roman' names and trappinge turned up more in RQ3 with books like 'Strangers In Prax' (Julian & The Lunar Coders etc), and was continued in the HeroWars & early HeroQuest books, as well as in fanzines and such.  

Definitely by the time HeroWars was published, the Orlanthi vs Lunars notion was often portrayed very similar to Gauls/Celts vs Romans, which seemed to feel a little wrong for many of us who still had earlier material.

I didn't mind it at the time, but it didn't feel particularly Gloranthan to me; whereas earlier portrayals hinted towards something very different to this.

So I am using an Achaemenid Persian flavour for the core Pelorian culture (with a touch of Hellenic Greek and also Phrygian Anatolian in places, such as armour styles for Solar Hoplites, etc), and mixing in a lot of Roman military trappings for the Lunar Imperial Army, it seems to fit with how I have read the G2G.

But getting back on topic, I thnk for gaming purposes I would use Persian names as a firm base, but mix and match with whatever sounds good, whether it's Latin, Greek, Egyptian or whatever.  

(although there is always bound to be a Provincial Governor who turns up called 'Biggus Dickus' no matter what you do, heh heh,)

Edited January 15, 2017 by Mankcam

[Mankcam]

29 minutes ago, Mankcam said:

.

 

Edited January 15, 2017 by Mankcam

[Darius West]

Roman naming conventions were quite involved.  Here is a little primer I found that does a reasonable job of summarizing the issues.

http://www.therthdimension.org/AncientRome/RomanNaming/romannaming.htm

 

[Jeff]

We don't use Roman names for Lunars any more. If you look at Fortunate Succession or Glorious Reascent of Yelm, you have a good selection of aristocratic Dara Happan names to run with.

Provincial names are different. Here's a selection of Lunar Tarshite names (from the forthcoming RQ):

Female: Durlindia, Erantha, Ernadali, Eteodona, Harsta, Hawarin, Hyjemkosta, Inkarne, Jorendona, Kana, Kerentha, Oriane, Sandene, Yaranbora, Yenesting.

Male: Annstad, Arim, Barterim, Danbal, Fazzur, Halifijeem, Illaro, Maroftoor, Moirades, Onjur, Ovardul, Palashee, Phargentes, Phoronestes Pyjeemstoor, Varstpoor, Vostor.

Those names are similar to those that you would find in Aggar, Holay, and southern Vanch, and are also the same as likely found in Wintertop and the Far Place.  

 

[Jon Hunter]

2 hours ago, Jeff said:

We don't use Roman names for Lunars any more. If you look at Fortunate Succession or Glorious Reascent of Yelm, you have a good selection of aristocratic Dara Happan names to run with.

Provincial names are different. Here's a selection of Lunar Tarshite names (from the forthcoming RQ):

Female: Durlindia, Erantha, Ernadali, Eteodona, Harsta, Hawarin, Hyjemkosta, Inkarne, Jorendona, Kana, Kerentha, Oriane, Sandene, Yaranbora, Yenesting.

Male: Annstad, Arim, Barterim, Danbal, Fazzur, Halifijeem, Illaro, Maroftoor, Moirades, Onjur, Ovardul, Palashee, Phargentes, Phoronestes Pyjeemstoor, Varstpoor, Vostor.

Those names are similar to those that you would find in Aggar, Holay, and southern Vanch, and are also the same as likely found in Wintertop and the Far Place.  

 

 

 

 

Cheers Jeff,

I like to look at expanding the name lists out in ways that reflect real world languages groups and look like a language group of names.

For my Balazaring list I plundered slavic because i thought it was interesting, and reflected the published names, added some published name prefixes and stems and created a hybrid that serves my purposes, and feels believable, though there do seem to be some duffers on my list. 

http://www.backtobalazar.com/balazaring-names/

I want to do the same, just so i create NPC's with believable and Cultural names, and hopefully my players hear a name and can guess the culture.  Or at least have it feel right. Unfortunately when writing NPCs you don't want to names duplicate even though that would be common in a culture so id want a longer name list. 

I can see the empire having a large range of different naming conventions and groups.

At least;

• Dara Happen
• Pelorian
• Provinces - with variations
• Carmathian
• and something different from the arcos river basin
• and i like the imperial names idea from the imperial handbook

Any ideas of what real world sources to plunder and inspire that at least wont Jar?

 

[Jon Hunter]

OK looking at fortunate succession I fine very few womens names, any suggestions ?

Different endings to stems ?

[metcalph]

1 hour ago, Jon Hunter said:

OK looking at fortunate succession I fine very few womens names, any suggestions ?

Different endings to stems ?

Women's names generally end with an -a as opposed to -us or -um for men.  Thus Jernotia or Jernotius.

[jajagappa]

5 hours ago, Jon Hunter said:

Different endings to stems ?

Yes, -a as Peter noted.  There's a short table in FS that spells out the common prefixes and suffixes.

[Jon Hunter]

Would you believe i've gone through  FS on my own creating my own list and of prefixes and suffixes  from all the names mentioned?

I hand not seen the bloody table, which page are we looking at ?

 

[Tindalos]

I believe they're meaning the Dara Happan Sacred Alphabet on page 103/104, which has the suffixes.

 

[jajagappa]

13 hours ago, Tindalos said:

I believe they're meaning the Dara Happan Sacred Alphabet on page 103/104, which has the suffixes

That is correct.

And between that and GRoY/FS, will give you many stem components to build out DH-derived Lunar names.

But for a broader range of Lunar names, you also need to look at Entekosiad which has Pelandan-derived names/stems.

[Jon Hunter]

OK open for Critique and Modification (the beauty of the online format) but first stab at the first of my lists;

• http://www.backtobalazar.com/lunar-names-part-1/
• http://www.backtobalazar.com/lunar-names-part-2-carmanian/

Edited January 27, 2017 by Jon Hunter

[Tcneseis]

For Dara Happan names, names can be used with a -us, -a or other Latin termination, etc. Other forms can be derived from Greek in the same way but it is not found in the Gloranthan sources.

For Lunar names the forms are whatever. Everyone in the Empire can become a Lunar.

 

Edited February 12, 2017 by Tcneseleis