A note on Voghlin from someone who lives in the northernmost north

xzar_monty

This is not a criticism, simply an observation: I'm not sure what kind of knowledge the developers have on the subject, but the fact is that Voghlin doesn't sound "northern" at all. Comparisons to real life are obviously rather silly, but since we've already heard agonizingly clear Californian surfer dudes in BG2:EE, I would like to point out that Voghlin doesn't sound Nordic, or even northern, at all. Not one bit. He's a parody of what a German might sound, if you don't know what you're doing. His "non-English" utterances are also German, not Nordic.

rapsam2003

xzar_monty said:

This is not a criticism, simply an observation: I'm not sure what kind of knowledge the developers have on the subject, but the fact is that Voghlin doesn't sound "northern" at all.

I think he was supposed to more represent what a FR character from the "North" in the Forgotten Realms would sound like, not necessarily what someone from a Nordic country would sound like.

Autocrat

One thing that irks me about Voghiln is the fact that he's from Luskan. That's not a Luskan accent. No other Luskanite NPC in any FR game sounds like that. It's a lot closer to Branwen's Moonshae accent, to be honest.

Make Voghiln a proper Northman instead of a Luskan dog!

Grum

What irks me about Voghiln is that he isn't a dwarf.

Francois

Just because he's said to be from Luskan doesn't mean his parent were. Khalid doesn't have the same accent as Rasaad even though they are both from Calimshan. Like in the real world there is a lot of mixing and a lot of accents in any major cities.

Southpaw

As the Doctor Who puts it, "Lots of planets have a North"

I don't think it was supposed to be Earth's north. Faerun is in a different universe.

scriver

The Faerun north is fairly directly and obviously based on the European north, and stereotypes thereof. To say otherwise is like saying Kara-Tur isn't based on East Asia, or that Maztica isn't based on Central America.

xzar_monty

@scriver: Exactly. And Voghlin is not from the north, he's Germanic. No problem at all here, it was just an observation. His voice acting made me go "Yeah, right".

Obviously, Germanic is more northern than Hispanic, for example, but since a skald is supposed to be a northern guy, he should really be Nordic.

rapsam2003

Luskan is NOT that far North; there's the whole of Icewind Dale that's way further north. See the map:

Also, why would you assume the accent of a Faerunian Northerner would be the same as that of a European Northerner? We cannot make that supposition...

Noon

To my french ears, his accent is northerner enough, be it german or scandinavian.

Sceptenar

As a Norwegian I detect no trace of Scandinavian in him. He sounds a lot more like Ahnuld to me than a true blooded viking. It's pretty common in American media for Northerners to be portrayed this way, there are tons of characters like this in Skyrim for example.

dockaboomski

Grum said:

What irks me about Voghiln is that he isn't a dwarf.

@billbisco, is that you?

Sirdent

If we are going to normalize the game's northerner's accents, can we at least take a vote of what northern area it should be? Fargo? New Foundland? Scotland? Norway? Finland? North Korea?

Sceptenar

Sirdent said:

If we are going to normalize the game's northerner's accents, can we at least take a vote of what northern area it should be? Fargo? New Foundland? Scotland? Norway? Finland? North Korea?

Pretty sure the Scots are dwarves.

kanemi

I agree with all of the complaints. He doesn't sound like a northerner. If Voghiln is to be a northerner, he should be an Alaskan or Nunavummiuq.

alaundo

he sounds like someone from east germany and says ja not very viking like

Troodon80

alaundo said:

he sounds like someone from east germany and says ja not very viking like

*cough*

Rawgrim

Sceptenar said:

As a Norwegian I detect no trace of Scandinavian in him. He sounds a lot more like Ahnuld to me than a true blooded viking. It's pretty common in American media for Northerners to be portrayed this way, there are tons of characters like this in Skyrim for example.

Spot on. Greetings from Norway, by the way.

Rawgrim

Sirdent said:

If we are going to normalize the game's northerner's accents, can we at least take a vote of what northern area it should be? Fargo? New Foundland? Scotland? Norway? Finland? North Korea?

The Forgotten Realms map is based on the real world map. America = Maztica. The Luskan\Icewind Dale area = Norway. Amn + Tehtyr = Spain\Portugal

wubble

I think everyone has a different perception of what northern is depending on where they're from, to me northern is Yorkshire/Lancashire, Geordie or Scottish.

Buttercheese

Hi, German here, I can indeed confirm that this is not just a German accent, it's a Saxon accent.
Filthy Saxons, almost as bad as the Bavarians! >:(

alaundo

Buttercheese said:

Hi, German here, I can indeed confirm that this is not just a German accent, it's a Saxon accent.
Filthy Saxons, almost as bad as the Bavarians! >:(

guden Dooch he sounds like Klaus from American Dad

Sids1188

wubble said:

I think everyone has a different perception of what northern is depending on where they're from, to me northern is Yorkshire/Lancashire, Geordie or Scottish.

Indeed, to me "Northern" is the most hot, tropical parts of Australia. Which, I suspect, is rather different than the images most people associate with "Northern".

Southpaw

...are we going to create a crapton of new threads in the style "A note on from someone, who ". Is that, what's IN these days, kids?

Somebody tell me, please.

I'll create a few too.
"A note on Rasaad from someone, who has been doing various martial arts for most of his life" (we don't fart flames and some of us can take a joke)
"A note on Khalid from a coward" (we don't get to marry a hot half-elves and I think that's pretty unfair)
"A note on Flaming Fist from someone, who's fists were on fire once" (it was an accident. It did not make me march around with a buckler and shout 'I am the law!' )
"A note to Nuber from someone, who has been deemed too annoying by everyone" (...)

rapsam2003

Rawgrim said:

The Luskan\Icewind Dale area = Norway.

Um, no...Luskan is more akin to Northern Germany in terms of a real world inspiration.

Sirdent

Since we cant agree on a real world Northern dialect, Northerners should sound like, can we all agree to make him sound like hes from Winterfell. Someone find Kit Harington for some voicework. "Brace yourself. Caelar is coming"

Buttercheese

Sirdent said:

"Brace yourself. Caelar is coming"

When Voghiln says that it gets a whole new meaning ...

Rawgrim

rapsam2003 said:

Rawgrim said:

The Luskan\Icewind Dale area = Norway.

Um, no...Luskan is more akin to Northern Germany in terms of a real world inspiration.

Still "there about". Closer than Murica, in any case.

rapsam2003

Rawgrim said:

rapsam2003 said:

Rawgrim said:

The Luskan\Icewind Dale area = Norway.

Um, no...Luskan is more akin to Northern Germany in terms of a real world inspiration.

Still "there about". Closer than Murica, in any case.

True, but the reason I make the distinction is because culturally...Luskan and Icewind Dale always felt much different to me. I mean, we encounter Luskan in several Forgotten Realms books, in NWN(1&2), in Sword Coast Legends (which was basically using 5E-lite, lol), etc. It always felt much different to me than Icewind Dale. /shrug