Zethafree, Names, and Philza
So I've had the dregs of a constructed language haunting me for the last... ten years or so, and usually the way I get anything done is by rotating blorbos in my mind with it, so I have decided to construct a Quackity SMP AU with it for reasons that will hopefully be obvious at the end of this post.
Firstly, I've actually got a plot thread I can pull up again. According to my ideas document, I first cast a QSMP-in-space setting in May! I just hadn't quite figured out how to reconcile "QSMP is about Many Different Languages" with "I speak. One (and can curse in many now, thank you Roier)." How do you depict multiple alien languages?
You come up with some words, and some other words, and decide which ones go to which language, and then corespond those to the languages spoken on the QSMP. I have one started! It is called Zethafree, and most of the words currently in it are "things important to a middle schooler writing fantasy." I cannot find a word for hello but there is a word for vampire. There are also some words that sound a hell of a lot like parts of Philza's name, though, and that leads us into the actual reason I started this post.
The first pair is 'Fe' and 'Lza', 'soul' and 'trick', which is a pretty funny concept, actually, here's the Angel of Death, his public name is Soul-trick. Edgy birb. I could probably construct a narrative where that is the meaning of his name. But the other pair of words is a lot more fitting: "Felz", meaning "red", and "-za", which when used as a suffix is to indicate rank, specifically as part of the ruling family but not the ruler or the heir. Like the queen, the crown prince's younger brothers, or the sibling of the king here on Earth.
A princess, you might say, if you wanted to translate the name of Urahara Kisuke's sword spirit into Zethafree. And Philza is literally cosplaying the man at all times. That's already really good! Bleach reference! But in the story, why would Philza name himself that?
Why would the noted anarchist birb name himself something so strictly to do with governments?
Well, he IS the Angel of Death. He's been the Angel of Death since before Kristin, actually, because he gained that title on SMP Earth. Techno called him that for swooping over to murder Wilbur! Which means he gained that title when he was a member of the Antarctic Empire. When Techno was The Emperor of Ice. When he became Techno's right-hand man. 'The Angel of Death', you may note, is not 'Co-emperor'. And in every story Phil tells Chayanne? He's following Techno's plan. Techno leads, Phil enforces. This is how Phil remembers it.
Which means, that in this story I'm plotting, every single time Philza introduces himself, he says something like "I'm Captain Philza Minecraft of the Quesadilla SMP Ship 'The Great Wall'," and he means "Hi! I've named myself out of loyalty to my best friend. Whatever other ranks I've earned, you must also remember that I helped him rule an empire." He named himself 'Red Royalty' when he ran an empire, and he's kept that name, because that's when he met Techno.
Now I just have to figure out how the hell Fit, perpetual normal human guy, is going to figure out enough of that to ask Phil about it.