Names of the Sixth World

A name has special importance in Uskara. While this is no Earthsea, perhaps, the world is said to have begun with a Name, and the claiming of titles and sobriquets by the gods is often symbolic of their ascension.

In addition to your birth name given to you by your parents, many often accumulate “deed names” (similar to Roman cognomen or Chinese courtesy names) used in more casual company sometime around when you come of age. Despite the name, the “deed” need not be great. It could be descriptive, inherited from a relative, or even relatively nonsensical. You can even have multiple, and gnomes in particular desire to collect them through their lifetimes. Those who travel widely will often have different deed names for different places they are known in, and are known thus by different names by different cultures.

I won’t belabor too examples of deed names, except to use Gandalf from Lord of the Rings as an example: Gandalf was born Olórin, known as Gandalf to the Men of the north (which soon became the name most associated with him), Mithrandir to the Elves, Incánus to the Men of the south, and Tharkûn to the Dwarves. Many of these names relate to his most common appellation of “the Gray”, and many variations of Grayhair, Greybeard, etc. He was also called Stormcrow, Láthspell and the White Rider. I would like to mirror this high fantasy feel in this game, and encourage people to think of similar variations and accumulate names, especially as your dastardly deeds unfold.

Most demihumans also belong to a clan. This is different than your immediate family, but rather a collection of many different families that have a shared origin, ancestry, and history, with individual lines perhaps spread across many different cultures. Thus this is tied to your ancestry. Quicklings, goblins and elves do not have clans, but kobolds do. Clan names are properly put before your birth name in formal introductions and records, but most of the time you will not be referred to by your clan name individually.

Instead of clans, elves organize into houses which are less defined by blood relation, and thus non-elves can join. The nobility, especially quicklings, have adopted this in Talingarde, and include members of all demihuman ancestry.Houses are neither patrilineal or matrilineal, necessarily; each has their own tradition of how they induct and accept members, but the Talirean nobility (including the elves) are more interested in bloodline than foreign cultures. This means you can both have a clan name from your ancestry but also be members of a noble house, though most choose to identify most with one or another.

Finally, there is your true name, which cannot be spoken or written, only known, which is imprinted upon your very soul, a magical thing that can be twisted and used if one was to find it.