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Lemurian Naming Conventions
jaazaniah1
Posts: 5,429 Arc User
I am working on a concept called Captain Lemuria. He will be both the brother to, and commander of the bodyguard for, Ambassador Krax (of War on Peace Infamy). At his brohter's leave, he sometimes finds himself involved with the superheoric activities of various surface dwellers.
This got me to wondering about Lemurian naming convetions. What will be the official, civilian/family name of Captain Lemuria? What are typical Lemurian types of names? "Krax" is not much to go on, and Arvad is not a native Lemurian (if anything, his name sounds Phoenician to me). Are Lemurain names patterned after any known languages? Do people have family names, or are they simply some form of so-and-so son of so-and-so? Eg. Thor Odinson, or David ben Jesse. Is there any data on this in the Lore?
This got me to wondering about Lemurian naming convetions. What will be the official, civilian/family name of Captain Lemuria? What are typical Lemurian types of names? "Krax" is not much to go on, and Arvad is not a native Lemurian (if anything, his name sounds Phoenician to me). Are Lemurain names patterned after any known languages? Do people have family names, or are they simply some form of so-and-so son of so-and-so? Eg. Thor Odinson, or David ben Jesse. Is there any data on this in the Lore?
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There is in fact quite a bit of data on this subject. The essential features are covered in the book, Hidden Lands, which discusses present-day Lemuria in great detail, along with other regions of Champions Earth. Additional data and examples are in Monster Island, while The Atlantean Age describes Lemuria in the antediluvian past when it was a great world power.
All Lemurians are functionally nobles, as their Mole Man slaves perform all manual and menial tasks in their society. Every Lemurian belongs to one of a number of noble Houses, each house led by an elder Patriarch or Matriarch. In the present day the names of the Houses are, Aar, Baz, Dwer, Hyrg, Jyln, Krax, Og, Qwer, Sron, Urog, Yrin, and Zur. Only the Patriarch of a House may use the name of their House as their surname. Sometimes members of a House will take a diminutive or altered version of their House's name as a surname. However, it's more common for them to use an epithet, either chosen themselves or applied by other Lemurians, to distinguish themselves (particularly since each House has only five or six traditional given names it uses for its children). It's common for Hero books to refer to the House a Lemurian belongs to when mentioning them, e.g. "Vikorin of House Hyrg," or "the House of Hyrg." Sometimes a Lemurian will have a title denoting their specific function in the Lemurian government or military, e.g. "Ambassador Krax" above (who must be the Patriarch of House Krax), or "Governor" when Lemuria ruled much of the surface world. "Commander" appears to be a common title for Lemurians leading part or all of their military.
The Lemurian language is guttural, with hard Ks and Hs pronounced at the back of the throat, and rolling, growling Rs. I'll list specific named Lemurians below, including some from the Atlantean Age, with House surnames where appropriate, and their epithets, as well as noting which ones are female.
Zorran the Artificer
Lyrence the Blue-Masked
Khusor the Crooked
Baelrath the Blasphemer
Besheeva the Veiled (female)
Commander Zarn
Vikorin the Blind
Qaylan the Furnace-Tender
Petrys Baz
Unctor the Black-Handed
Karessa Jyln (female)
Virleen the False-Dreamer (female)
Commander Nyl
Jalra the Scold
Lyesha the Strong (female)
[The following are Atlantean Age Lemurians]
Faltrah Lem
Tyrann Lem
Clymkris Lem
Andrith the Golden
Tregon Shorg
Hogrem
Kosarhd
Governor Tregad
Chored
Belizor
Lamrican
Haliris Atal (female)
Tereghar
Governor Helkaen
Temgath
Gelledan
Out of curiosity, is there anything known about the relations between House Krax and Arvad? One the one hand, maybe they are close allies and the MC Ambassador role is a great honor. On the other hand, maybe the relations are cool, or even hostile, and then Krax's appointment would be a kind of exile to a backwards/primitive culture (i.e. us).
It would be quite like Arvad to allow all other Lemurians to think that appointing the Krax Patriarch to this ambassadorial post is an act of censure (they're culturally very superior and dismissive toward Humanity), whereas he's actually performing a key role in Arvad's plans.
While a few named Lemurians are attributed to specific Houses, the majority are not. I would say it would be perfectly acceptable to choose any of the names from the list on my first post not so attributed. For further exclusion purposes, Khusor is (publicly) of House Sron, Vikorin is House Hyrg, and Zarn is House Og. (Personally I'd go with either "Clymkris" for difficulty, or "Lyrence" because everyone will call him "Lawrence.")
From your remarks, it sounds like "the Fierce" would make a nice epithet for him. War and sorcery are the only two professions considered appropriate for Lemurians.
Well, duh! A pox on those humans and their merchant class.