reason 108302834: my 3.5 game makes me insane. My PC Ale and @halfandhalfling's PC Sash are platonic soulmates, in every sense of the word. like full-on find-you-in-any-universe soulmates.
now im not going to get into all of the details because I'd be here all day but the TLDR: is that ale, is looking for some magic relics, and one of them is Sash's heart. OOC, I'm 90% sure she'd be fine if she had her heart removed, BUT ale is never going to take that risk. not if they have a choice.
i know they won't in the end.
Now, Sash does have a S/O, but everyone knows it's going to have to be ale in the end. It always has been and always will be. they are the only two left of the original party. they have been traveling together the longest and have been through the entire plot together. Yes Jessie has been there for *most* of it but not *all* of it. not the prison not traveling through the swamps and finding out the gods were fake, not the fight with the sahuagin, or the dryad.
We, as players, are just waiting for the moment the choice will be made for us because there ain't no way Ale is going to cut out Sash's heart with literally any other choice. and I know it's going to be soooo dramatic and soooo tasty. every session we know its that moment is getting closer but not when, and the tension is becoming so palpable
Hello! I've seen you answer questions about Halsin and Astarion's names, so I have a question, before I ask my main question; would you/do you find it annoying if someone would come up to you and ask a question about deciphering their character's name that are hella made up/don't follow any of the linguistics featured in 5e lore?
I'd love to see if you'd have any thoughts on my Drow Durge Vyrin's but I don't want to bother you about him if you'd rather not.
(You can ignore this or answer privately to tell me no if you wish, asdfghjkl)
Hello! I do not find it annoying at all - the complete opposite, actually. I love deciphering elven names based on the limited DND lexicon available, and scraping it together to theorize over potential meaning. It's a lot of fun! (And of course again I must stress I am not an expert on this, nor are any of my ruminations worth much salt - they're based on the limited sources we have regarding DND elvish with my own interpretation thrown in. Feel free to take as little or as much of it in stride as you like).
But without further ado, in regards to your Drow Durge, we get to go down two potential paths - an approximation meaning based on the slightly more limited drow dialect of elvish (whether he is a surface drow or not slightly affects this, as well as how connected he is with Drow culture and custom), and suggestions of meaning in basic elvish (or Espruar).
VYRIN
I'll start by saying that "VY" is not a common combination in written elvish - there is one exception here, and that is the name of the Clan "Vyshaan", who were a clan of demon tainted elves who came to power in ancient Aryvandaar by conquering all the other elven nations of Faerun during the Crown Wars. Because of this, "Vyshaan" has since become a bit of an elvish curse, essentially calling someone "power-mad", but based in elvish lexicon, it only means something in the context of the entire word - "shan" otherwise means "go", and "shaan" means "sun maker". You could, for argument's sake, reason that "Vy" means either "power" OR "mad", but it's unclear as to which it is. You could stop here, though, and suggest his name is a deliberate call back to this.
Otherwise, V's are more often paired with A's, E's and I's, so we may need to substitute here based on what sound the "y" is making here as elvish is very tonal - we can argue that it's stylized as a "Y" when written for aesthetic's sake. If it's a short /i/ (itch) or a long /ī/ (might) noise, we can replace it with an I for phonetics sake. If it's more like a short /e/ (eh) we can substitute an E.
Or, if we take it a step further, we can instead say "V" is the tonal letter added to the beginning of his name to make it roll off the tongue better (as elvish is all about making things flow easier and they'll apply this to naming conventions), and means nothing, while the meaning itself starts with the "Y".
Drow:
Starting off very simply, "Vyrin" is already very close to the drow word "verin" which means "evil". Very straight forward. Could be completely on purpose in this case.
Otherwise, in surface Drow dialect, we could break it up like "Vier - in"
Vier = Black, dark, darkness
-in = Lady/Lord, rider or steed (interchangeable)
Ergo, "Lord of the Darkness" or "Dark Steed" or "Black Rider" depending on how you'd like to put it together.
Espruar:
Starting first if we treat "V" as a tonal letter"
V - yr - in
Yr = Bringer
-in = Sibling, Brother/Sister
So something like "He who brings his brothers and sisters" could be discerned from this (perhaps in reference to sacrificing other Bhaalspawn/bringing them closer to goal).
V - ir -in
Ir = Dusk
-in = Sibling, Brother/Sister
"Brother of the dusk" or "Dusk Brother"
V-er-in
er = Winter
"Winter's Sibling"
V-eir-in
Eir = Sharp
"Sharpest brother" or "Sharp Brother" etc.
Or treating the V as part of the whole word, we could do:
Ver-in
Ver = Peace
"Peaceful brother"
Veri-n (N being tonal)
Veri = Live, living
He is, quite simply, a living thing.
Depending on how it's pronounced, you could go even fancier with the tonality:
Ver-ii-en
Ver = Peace
II = Nobility
-en = Autumn
A more nonsensical one, but could be read as an individual that protects the peace while aligning with autumn, the season of winter preparation, harvest (and death).
So there are lots of choices depending on what angle you'd like your Drow Durge to take - if you want the more traditional drow dialect route, his name could simply mean (or be an allusion to) "evil" or "Lord of the Darkness".
Or, since elvish does ebb and flow with tone and context, it could also mean "Peaceful brother" or "Brother of the Dusk" as time goes on.
hey, you seem to know a lot abt dnd lore - mind if I ask you something?
there's a lot of gods and I imagine your regular joe would go to give offerings or pray or go to a specific cleric depending on what is needed, no big deal. but what abt a situation where a cleric of specific god tries to communicate with another god? I'm not even thinking extremes like going to a rival god or whatever, just, let's say cleric of lathander calling on silvanus bc let's say they are lost in the wilderness, idk. are there rules? 🤔 do you have an opinion of your own? I'm curious
Hi! No I don't mind if you ask me something at all.
I might not be the best to ask this one, as my main interest with DnD lore lies mostly in anthropological, linguistics and societal structures; however from what I know, clerics casually praying to other gods who are not their devoted should their circumstances require it is *usually* not frowned upon, so long as they embody and maintain their loyalty in only serving their primary god/goddess.
It will vary from setting to setting, table to table, mind, but most (generally) seem to agree that it will not affect the cleric's spells or powers should they acknowledge other gods/pray to them.
I can imagine - from a spitballing/roleplaying POV - some gods may be more jealous/possessive over their faithfuls than others (depending on how involved in mortal affairs they are), even if the cleric prays to other gods within a similar pantheon, and some still might be *so* jealous that they outright forbid it/will take their blessings away. Further still, some gods if called upon by clerics of alternate gods may refuse aid - depends how petty they feel, their alignment, and what a DM might decide to do.
In the case you mentioned, for example, Lathlander likely would care very little if one of his clerics were to pray to Silvanus, as they identify one another as allies (Silvanus would care even less - he is truly neutral aligned, and has very few true enemies or allies). However, if one of his clerics were to call upon - say - Talos or Shar, that might not sit as well.
All in all it really depends how you want to swing the setting, but in general, as long as the cleric continues to serve and devote themselves to their main god/goddess
