The Ironsong Tribe

Maurnan - I think it's latin, I can't recall. But it's the word "mourning" in some old, fancy-pants language. A nod to his lament about falling from high mage to lowly warlock.

Zaleos is actually an alternate way of spelling Saleos:

In demonology, Saleos is a mighty Great Duke (a Great Earl to Johann Weyer) of Hell, ruling thirty legions of demons (Weyer does not mention anything concerning legions under his command). He is of a pacific nature, and causes men to love women and women to love men (Weyer does not mention the nature of his work).

He is depicted as a gallant and handsome soldier, wearing a ducal crown, and riding a crocodile.

Fitting that the Summoner's specialty is Demonology.

Amato is simply a very fortunate use of the Random Name Generator. My human pally, Beren, on the other hand is named for a character from Tolkien's mythology. Look him up on Wikipedia.

Dergash gets his name because I wanted something that sounded "orcy". I started with a hard D sound, added the er to give it some gutteral weight, then added the gash as a nod to the Orc's more brutal history. So D-er-gash, it has a nice grumpy old Orc ring to it I like.

Cloudjumper was a moment of inspiration when creating the a new druid. I had played a few other Tauren and noticed that they seemed to take a lot of their cultural reference points from Native American themes. Originally he was going to be called Dreamwalker, but it wouldn't let me, then Cloudwalker was tried, but no go, and then Cloudjumper and YAY !!!!

Reprinted from a conversation and another thread elsewhere, in case people wonder.

I had moved away from friends back in 2004. The experience was good, but also a little painful. They were my family of friends, compatriots and my regular roleplaying group. Pen and paper games were our domain and we dabbled in many genres. When I moved, I learned that finding another RP group was nigh impossible -- without significant travel, or significant changes in my preferred level of play.

On a visit back home for Christmas, I was gifted a copy of WoW and told to get online, because it was what all the other cool kids were doing. I was reluctant and nearly sold the game. I had had a few negative experiences playing other MMO's and had guessed that things would not be much different. However, I installed it anyways. Might as well give it a chance. Plus, I had 30 days to decide.

Fortunately, my friends had chosen an RP server and Silver Hand became my home. The early months of the server (only two months into launch) tried my patience, but I was true to my friends. I began, as I always do, with a rogue as my template. Call me old-fashioned, but I've always preferred the 'live by your wits and skill' character that is the rogue -- no magic to bail you out and only that crappy dagger to keep you alive. As I stared at the character creation I thought about the personality that would go into this new toon. I picked the look that seemed most appropriate and thought about some of the back story. This was fairly easy considering that the name had been chosen from experience with preevious Blizzard products. Chewtoy.

What? Chewtoy? What kind of name is that. Well, when you are playing Starcraft and you want to differentiate yourself. Being the Chewtoy is self-reflective and humourous. But Chewtoy in an RP server? Truthfully, I saw nothing wrong with the name. The character creation names were associated with darkness, death and gruesome ways to die. A Chewtoy seemed fitting.

As I chose the appropriate look and feel and wrote in the name, I had been listening to some music and one of my favourite songs from Faith No More came on, "Smaller and Smaller". If you've never heard the album Angel Dust, it is a fantastic journey through life. Anyways, this song, for me, encompasses what it is like to be a farmer on a dried up husk of land, every year the crops come back, smaller and smaller and smaller, always waiting for the rains to come.

That seemed very appropriate, but how to make the name Chewtoy fit. How could a farmhand become a chewtoy. Dragons. And so, Chewtoy was swallowed whole and then brought to unlife from the dungheap. The ultimate in humiliating death and return.

But what about Saezhur? Interestingly enough, I had the misfortune of running afoul of PvP'ers who were less than happy about getting beaten time and again by a cocky little rogue, and of course, it certainly could not have helped that I corpse-camped their blue-flagging asses, but that's a bygone era. Regardless, I awoke the next morning and my name had been revoked. And I sat at my keyboard having to think over a new name.

Saezhur. A combination of seizure and Caesar. A forgotten king, although, I happened to also be listening to Faith No More's King For a Day, Fool For Life album. Weird how FNM seems to crop up in a lot of things surrounding Saezhur.

Now, here's the thing, I was a little despondent over having lost my name and didn't really have much of an idea if I wanted to continue if I could not play the name I had originally chosen. I tried winging it with my new name and found myself playing Saezhur as an idiot with no memory or capability to remember more than just a few words at a time. I was rebuilding the character with only the farmer and dragon as his heritage. However, the RP on Silver Hand was quite difficult because most merely thought I was some script kiddie and could not see the deeper story.

I was very near quitting the game as I was not overly pleased with just the level grind or the instance grind. However, a stroke of RP hit while Saezhur sat on the zeppelin tower near Undercity. A certain female undead warlock emoted a giggle and said hello. Saezhur, being the idiot savant, spoke to her in simple tone but also with some inflection and a couple of intelligent words that hinted at a deeper intelligence. And she understood. It was a short interaction, but it gave me hope that perhaps others could also see the difference I had chosen.

At the time, most "RP'ers" on Silver Hand had chosen to be heroes or descendents of heroes, or children of warrior kings. Saezhur was merely a farmer and a serf, so I apparently was way ahead of my time. But I kept searching for others that could play outside of the norm. Some came, some went, some stayed only for a while. I have remained and tried to be a source of RP and of humour. My RP style is quite involved even if it appears nonchalant, but that is because the best RP comes from people who can just fall into the character and play for the sake of playing.

If nothing else, Saezhur has kept close with his first real RP experience in WoW and it has only gotten better with time. As always, I leave some mystery for those not in the know, and say thank you to those who do.

~ Saezhur, King for a Day, Fool for Life

Well Naamah was named for a demon in a song called "Invocation of Naamah" by Therion. The song references a demon of that name form a variety of mythologies.

In order of creation:

Silat Deathrime (62 Forsaken Mage): I first encountered the name in a TCG whose name I can't even recall now; its premise was devils and angels were fighting alongside normals in a cyberpunk type setting. One of the angels was named Silat.

Lhuurssa Bloodmoon (70 Orc Hunter): I've made mention of this a few times in the OOC channel, and it's fun to see the light flash on for someone. I've always liked the Klingons, and think that they and the Orcs from WoW are very similar. I, ahem, "borrowed" the name of a female Klingon from an episode in The Next Generation series, and thus Lhuurssa was born.

Bhaatuur Bloodmoon (67 Orc Warrior): See Lhuurssa; Bhaatuur was Lhuurssa's sister, and so it is here. For the record, I'm aware they are spelled differently in Star Trek, I went with more phonetic spellings.

Anamdubh (64 Troll Shaman): I've come to appreciate the beauty of the Gaelic language, though I don't have anything close to a clue as to how to speak it or pronounce the words. I used an online dictionary/translation site to get the Gaelic words for "dark spirit." "Dubh" is spirit, and I beleieve I shortened another word to "Anam;" it's been a bit, so the memory is hazy. In hindsight, the name doesn't feel very Troll-ish to me, but not so much I'm willing to toss money at Blizzard to change it.

Kraala Bloodmoon (52 Orc Warlock): When I decided to make an orc warlock, I thought it could be interesting if Lhuurssa and Bhaatuur had a sister that was the "dark sheep of the family." I don't recall any particular inspiration for the name.

Syrannae (62 Blood Elf Paladin): I had run a male elf rogue character in an evil DnD campaign named Syrann. I liked it enough to add the "ae" to make it feminine for my Blood Elf paladin. Like Kraala, there's no specific meaning or inspiration behind the name, aside from it sounding Elfin to me.

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Cephelange du'Krevviq (70 Human Warlock): I had used this name for a primary antagonist in a DnD campaign, and it's a name I've liked ever since I thought of it.

Hannorel Songblade (61 Night Elf Priest): Another 'port from a DnD character; Hannorel was an Elven specialty priest of Corellon Larethian. I used this name for my High Elf Cleric in EQ, and decided to tap it once again for my WoW priest.

Kyllyan MacMannis (62 Human Rogue): Kyllyan started off as Killian, a human Bard in yet another DnD campaign. I created him as Killyan on Medivh (the server he started on), but after transferring him here, I had to change it because someone else had that name.

Maardrikk (48 Draenei Paladin): I went for a name that sounded "alien" enough, and felt like it "fit" the Draenei's accent. He initially started off as a shaman, but I figured there'd be umpteen billion Draenei Shamen, and I didn't have a potential plate wearer at all, Alliance-side.

I love these threads!

Skrap (Half-orc/goblin Rogue) - I allready had the concept for Skrap before the name. I tried to think of something that sounded appropriately engineery and had the diminutive feel to it as well. Scrap just seemed natural, and I kind of whimsically changed the c to a k. I think I might have been worried about the naming policy, but it may have just been capricious also.

Comfort (Forsaken Priest)- I was doing research for a history class on American colonial records, and it struck me that a lot of the names the puritan girls were given, based on virtues, would fit well for the children of families devoted to the light. This is the opposite of Skrap, as the name inspired the character. The idea of a forsaken priest named Comfort just seemed ironically delicious. The family trend continues, as some of you may get to meet her sister Prudense (Prudence was taken by someone not even lvl 10 :evil: ) who is a now quite gleefully insane death knight.

Cirsie Blood Elf Warlock)- Pretty obviously and shamelessly stolen from Greek legend. Seemed appropriate for a Warlock.

Okina(Blood ELf Paladin)- If any of you have ever seen the anime Azumanga Daioh, she's based on Osaka. (Fear!) The name was derived from that to be similiar, but not sound derived.

Jhoe (Tauren Shaman)- My new tauren shaman got his inspriration from of all places, the world of Professional Wrestling. Jhoe, who shows to people with MRP or FRP as Taraujo Jhoe, comes from the TNA wrestler Samoa Joe. Yeah, I'm a geek of many colors.

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Alliance (Or, those characters that feel so lonely ever since I came horde-side and found Ironsong)

Ehris (Night Elf Fury Warrior) - Hail Discordia! Eris, goddess of Strife, cause of the Trojan war, and all around psycho... my favorite Greek God!

Ohd (Dwarf hunter) - In an old D&D game (yep, me too!) I was looking through Norse names for a dwarf character. One of them was Odd. How can you not choose that name? Well, WoW wouldn't let me, so an h got put in.

Langston (Human Priest) - Named after Langston Hughes, one of the great novelists of the Harlem revolution.

Zohwie (Human Mage) - I just always liked the name. No real story there.

Naruth and Vilyave were two of three sister goddesses (each of whom loathed the others) in the pantheon of a Neverwinter Nights PW where I played for quite a long time. Each of the three sisters' spheres of influence included beauty and vanity, with Vilyave also encompassing wind, air, and birds, Naruth- fire, fury, and passion, and Helkris- ice, the cold, and time.

I had always loved all the names, but Vilyave was my favorite. When I created my first Hordie, it seemed like a natural choice (wind, wild things, and being generally good-aligned) for a shaman. Naruth followed soon after, though in retrospect she should have been named after Helkris instead. This is from the DM's description of her:

Quote:To seek to always present an immaculate appearance, to manipulate and control those around them through all the weapons at their disposal. But violence is such a...hasty act, Helkris's favour is more often granted when more imaginative means can be found to make an enemy truly suffer.

...which is so very my Naruth.

Aeorie, created to be a frost mage, was almost named Helkris, but I changed my mind at the very last minute and made up something that sounded "elfie" to me, very flighty with lots of rounded vowel sounds.

Whilst was named in a fit of madness. I was a wee bit obsessed with the breakdown of sounds and the flow of syllables, and loved words that fit together to sound a certain way. During the same period of time, I had a little Night Elf druid named Erstwhile. >.> Neither may be a very appropriate RP name, but I've become pretty fond of Whilst.