What is the backstory behind your main character's name?
TethorilofLathander
Member Posts: 427
My PC is called Tethoril. Originally, it was just out of laziness and Tethtoril sounded like such a good name when I first played through the game. So I roleplayed that Tethtoril was actually one of my PC's main tutors, with Gorion and so on, and therefore Gorion named my PC after him.
But then I started writing a fanfiction and decided to embelish this a little more to make it more believable. Tethtoril actually had a son roughly 40-50 years before the events of the Baldur's Gate series, called Tethoril (similar in the Tolkien fashion of having bloodlines with similar names, such as Theoden, Theodred, Eowyn, Eomer and so on). This child died in a series of events, again made up to introduce the reader more to Gorion and Tethtoril (as there's not too much that you find out about them so early on, which is a shame as they're very interesting characters in lore).
I created the event that the book we see within the whole Bhaalspawn saga is actually a book with notes on where the Bhaalyns operate, as they are very secretive. So I had Gorion, Tethtoril and his son, Tethoril, hunting down some Bhaalyns within Netherese ruins in the Anauroch Desert (solely because I love the Netheril). During this escapade, they awaken an ancient Netherese lich. The lich then kills Tethoril before he can escape, but Gorion and Tethtoril manage to get the book.
After these events (around 1348DR) I had Gorion name his ward after Tethoril, son of Tethtoril, to honour his memory. There are some poetic elements in there too which are great to write about.
But, how did you decide upon the name for your main character(s)?
(I hope Gorion wasn't just a lazy sod and looked through a Candlekeep list of baby names XD)
But then I started writing a fanfiction and decided to embelish this a little more to make it more believable. Tethtoril actually had a son roughly 40-50 years before the events of the Baldur's Gate series, called Tethoril (similar in the Tolkien fashion of having bloodlines with similar names, such as Theoden, Theodred, Eowyn, Eomer and so on). This child died in a series of events, again made up to introduce the reader more to Gorion and Tethtoril (as there's not too much that you find out about them so early on, which is a shame as they're very interesting characters in lore).
I created the event that the book we see within the whole Bhaalspawn saga is actually a book with notes on where the Bhaalyns operate, as they are very secretive. So I had Gorion, Tethtoril and his son, Tethoril, hunting down some Bhaalyns within Netherese ruins in the Anauroch Desert (solely because I love the Netheril). During this escapade, they awaken an ancient Netherese lich. The lich then kills Tethoril before he can escape, but Gorion and Tethtoril manage to get the book.
After these events (around 1348DR) I had Gorion name his ward after Tethoril, son of Tethtoril, to honour his memory. There are some poetic elements in there too which are great to write about.
But, how did you decide upon the name for your main character(s)?
(I hope Gorion wasn't just a lazy sod and looked through a Candlekeep list of baby names XD)
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Right now, my char's name is Alina, because the portrait is based on an image of Alina Vacariu drawing a bow (thanks to Synta13, IIRC).
Assassin: Treske Aijnissarim. My second-created charname in BG2, after giving up the first one when I realized there was no evil thief for my party (and Xzar and Monty could not be recruited). Named soley for rp reasons to mock Edwin's introduction about syllables. Such a beginner.
Jester: Nicht/Not Cathigheri (nicht = German for "not"), just for the pun of introducting himself as "I'm not Cathigheri". He has a "real" first name, which he doesn't use since leaving Candlekeep, and his last name is made up, too - he wants to shake off the ties to his former life and uses a foreign sounding name to confuse people (and sometimes switches to a new last name, too).
Jin, as a Half-Elf Fighter/Mage was the protagonist of my first full saga playthrough of BG 1 and BG 2, including my first ever LP with BG 2 Vanilla. I have plans to 'reboot' the character with a BG EE to BG 2 EE full saga playthrough, and this time will start as a Human Kensai, with plans to dual-class into Mage at the very start of BG 2 EE.
Before I do that he will also be included in a Black Pits 1 and 2 playthrough, though not as the party leader. In the 'Black Pits reality', instead being a Bhaalspawn with any relation to Gorion and Candlekeep, he is the elder son of a Shou merchant who fled to the city of Phsant in Thesk in 1359, before the rampaging Tuigan Horde. He is a competent swordsman trained in the Shou style, but has shown no magical abilities thus far, unlike his younger half-brother, Kang, who has an instinctive understanding of the Weave, and is generally considered more talented and capable than Jin.
Black Pits party
http://forum.baldursgate.com/discussion/29032/black-pits-questions
The name Sima Jin is written as 司馬進 in Chinese. Sima (司馬) was a common surname in ancient China, and the Sima Clan produced China's most famous historian (Sima Qian), as well as the rulers of the short-lived Jin (not the same Jin) Dynasty (265-420), who were ultimately the victors of the famous Three Kingdoms period. Jin (進) means 'advance/improve' in Chinese, and reflects Jin's parents' hope that he would overcome his childhood illness and improve in life.
Jin's 'weakness' in early life, compared to a more charismatic, talented and successful brother is central to his identity, although in my own novel, Jin is the younger sibling, whereas for the Black Pits, Jin will be the elder brother.
Jin's portrait is actually my forum profile picture, which @Isandir kindly made for me from a photo of myself. Naturally since I created the character, he shares some of my personality, attitudes and beliefs, but he was created for a very different setting to the real world, and thus there are also clear differences. For a start, I am a single child with no siblings.
My name is Fatal. My last name is If Swallowed. Need more details ? lol
My black pits character is a half-elf fighter/mage named Aria after my newborn daughter.
My male elven archer was called Maralantir, I just typed letters and mixed sillables until I got a cool elvish sounding name.
My female 1/2 orc F/T was called Therkla, in honnor of the 1/2 orc ninja in the Order of the Stick comic (i discovered that comic thanks to this forum! but I discovered it during my finals, which was bad..) so she is a ninja like character that surrounds herself with high charisma low intel bards! (I enjoyed that playthrough a lot, I managed to make Garrick really usefull some times!)
My shadowdancer was called Aurora, I usually called stealthing thieves "Shadow", but since we adopted a dog with that name, I can't really associate stealth with that name because my dog is so noisy and excited I think he's hyperactive (or maybe he's just a dog...). So i called her Aurora because it's cool.
My female elven F/M was called Tiraisa got her name like my archer, just a mix up of sylables until I get a name.
My male cavalier is called Faustus Aquila, which is latin for "lucky eagle". I wanted him to have a latin name so I looked out list of latin words and picked those I liked to make a name. I once had a Cavalier in vanilla I called "gros cave" (which is a french cannadian expression for "big dumbass") because he had 3 intel. He was terrified of mindflayers!
My current EE playthrough is a CE Beserker ->cleric nicknamed Talon which is a modified version of the god Talos' name.
He is named after a Minnesota Vikings LB, Chad Greenway---always liked that name
@Wolk Aurora means dawn in spanish :P watch out for funny folk that talks spanish
(this list was reduced just to "Best of PCs")
My first PC Crevs Daak has his name originated on Crev'Sindri Dak'Huinar (myself
Then I had a PC named Jimmy (in memory of Jimi Hendrix, I've exported him in a CHR file named HENDRIX if it wasn't evident enough :P), an elven F/M totally daring and looking to change the world for good, his good or others good, I made a mistake and created him as CG, but he should have been NG.
Then, a human swashbuckler->mage, female named Sarilien, miswritten as Sarlien, chaotic good.
Female, Neutral Evil, Valhalla (a Valkyrie!
As'Ardan'Tysram, a wild mage/thief, Quasit, totally insane Chaotic Evil jerk, his gender is: neither :P.
Darhaina, chaotic Evil half elf Kensai/Assassin/Conjurer, an evil woman with evil purposes, in a ultra modded vanilla run, she is going to rule over The Abyss, Baator and The Nine Hells together without any clothes! (she is a Kensai, but she is nudist too :P).
Since I name my save game files for the character and I don't want it to be confusing I've added "Sir" to my blackguard's name. Now that I'm giving bard a proper spin for the first time (I rolled a total of 95 which I feel a bit compelled to play with) I couldn't think of a proper prefix title for that though so I went with the last name I usually use in RPGs: Silverstar. I think it kind of works as a bardic nickname.
My Female Undead Hunter Paladin who I beat the first game with was named Timea which means "Honor" (it actually started as Buffy, but I couldn't take it seriously...)
My male Ranger was named Dassos, which means "Forest"
My male Blade is named Ergo, which means "Play" or "Work of Art". I then changed it to Korvin, which I used to represent Khoro (Xwpo), the Greek word for "dance"
Now for last name:
Gorionson
It is an ode to the character's father, Gorion. I always thought it was a fitting tribute.
I just used the name my Gypsy brethren in House Romani gave me in real life five years ago. Boring, I know.
Since then I've incorporated a few more influences into the Shin concept, mostly from the Naruto and Code Geass animes - and as I have personally grown a bit older and hopefully wiser in the years since, my characters also tend to be a bit more cerebral and less physical, leaning more towards caster types.
Markra, the protagonist of my fanfic and my F/M playthrough, is a character from a story I'm writing.
For my evil playthrough, I've borrowed the essence of my fictional god of darkness.
One of my female characters is named after a magic-user in another story, although their personalities are completely different...
And I've even borrowed a second protagonist and wrote entries in his journal describing that he'd been spirited away from his world and placed within a foreign body, and he's going through the saga trying to find a way home.
Sometimes, characters that I've made in Baldur's Gate end up with stories of their own. They're born within the realm of the game, and they just stick. They don't want to leave my head... So I create backstories and shape worlds around them, until I've got another story idea conceived.
My bard is an interesting case. Decane Alucard, whose name was originally pronounced Dee-saw-nay, with an accented e. People kept mispronouncing it as Dee-kane, so the latter just stuck after a while. Decane has yet to find her own story, but she's always been a bit of a mascot character of mine... A character with no home other than my mind, but refuses to leave me alone. :P I'll figure something out for her, someday... Though for now, she's simply my canon-female Bhaalspawn.
The original Corvino was a WoW Rogue. I got frustrated trying to come up with an name that hadn't been taken and eventually dredged through my memories of english literature at school and came upon the character Corvino from the play Volpone. In the play he's a greedy, obsessed with status, not above threats of violence - perfect for a rogue. It also conveniently means Jet Black in Italian, which again suits the rogue.
Coming up with a name for a similar looking paladin I figured they were probably brothers and took inspiration from the name Cohrvale (a guy you can kill outside the Copper Coronet) and Corvale came into being.
I've had some fun naming Gnomes recently. You can't give a Gnome a badass sounding name, you need something that teeters between the parochial, the old fashioned and the silly. Trevor, Nigel and Quentin have all gathered their parties and ventured forth from Candlekeep in the past year, to various grisly fates.
*Edit* for additional giggles, give your gnome a suitably hyperbolic epithet. Trevor the Invincible. Terry Pratchett would approve.
Okay my first post in this topic was a tired mind lame joke. The truth is, my mother is chaos and my father is battle. Therefore, I am Fatal Apocalypse. Hail in Hell.
Zeno
Thrasymachus
Epicurus
Hobbes
Lucretius
All philosophers (or, in the case of Thrasymachus, a sophist).
@Corvino I have a tendency to put the word "Uncle" before my gnomish PCs, and their are part of the Jansen family