[Parrp the Karp]

Naming!

Grasping the box with both hands, you flee home from the computer store at full speed, mind spinning with the glorious adventures that await you. But there is one more hurdle that you must overcome before you can enter this new world - what will you name your characters? Their names will, after all, be important - you'll be looking at them for the days and weeks to come. And with the ability to choose character portrait, attitude, and voice, your decisions now become even more important down the road.

I usually forget to think of names in advance, and then find myself staring at the screen for upwards of an hour or two trying to come up with great names that sum up my idea of the character. I feel compelled to do this "the right way" before I can start the game. I don't always do a very good job, but I'm pretty pleased with how I did with my Wizardry 8 team.

I kept Sslartess'alar (Sslar), the burly lizardman fighter from the demo, because I really enjoyed his dimwitted comments when I was playing it. "Good! I crush better now!"

For my female Felpurr monk, I came up with "Vespe Cantor" (Vespe). Vespe is from "Vespers", the time of evening prayer in some Christian churches, which itself comes from the Latin "vespera" which means "evening". A Cantor is a person who chants or sings, usually in religious services. I thought these words were appropriate for a monk. Although, come to think of it, she spends very little time praying and a lot of time critical striking, something I very much doubt the bishop would approve of [img]smile.gif[/img]

My male Dracon Ranger has the "snotty intellectual" personality and I wanted a name to match. "Shtay of Stars" (Pak Shtay) sounded as if it were in his own native tongue, and a little pompous too [img]smile.gif[/img] Even through your party seems to be rather technologically backward, I could see him taking advantage of his knowledge that he came from another planet - "Yes, I am from the /stars/, my dear" might be his bar pickup line....

Mooks are neat, but none of the pictures really look particularly feminine to me. However, I wanted a female bard, so I went ahead and made one with the least-masculine looking picture (hey, what do I know about alien races anyway?) and named her Flooo F'layeh (Flooo), which seemed both 'alien' and friendly.

My worst of all names is probably tacked onto my tiny, beautiful faerie bishop. I wanted something that sounded very magical, but I kept thinking of names that seemed too harsh for such a small and delicate lady. I finally settled on "Kirin", which comes from the kirin or ki-lin, a mythical creature of China, Japan and the neighboring areas. It's often compared to the western Unicorn, as it is quite magical and somewhat horse shaped, but the details on its appearance and powers vary widely depending on who you ask.

My favorite of all of them is "Reeve Palu" (Palu), the very kindly Rawulf priest. When I saw the picture of the white Rawulf, it reminded me strongly of the rural people who live up in the Andes Mountains of South America. I'm not really sure why, but I could just visualize him in their colorful native clothing, up high in the chilly mountains. I have no idea what "Palu" means, I just thought it sounded right...