Before the Heavensward expansion comes out, please let us know the naming conventions for the new race so we can have our accurate player names ready to go. Thank you!
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Before the Heavensward expansion comes out, please let us know the naming conventions for the new race so we can have our accurate player names ready to go. Thank you!
I second this motion, although I presume they are already working on it. :D
They assured they will....sooner or later. I believe a dev post was made a few weeks back to that effect.
If nothing else; you will be able to get a lore-friendly name by using the random name feature in the character creator.
I'm assuming (mostly based on Yugiri) that they share Doman naming conventions. Doman names so far have been (Japanese first name) (Nounverber)/([short]AdjectiveNoun)
Examples from the game:
Yugiri Mistwalker
Karasu Redbeak
Oboro Moonrise
Other possible examples (created by me based on ingame examples):
Midori Gladerunner
Tsubasa Skyturner
Daichi Sunscryer
Orochi Bluescale
Sakura Darkblade
Masashi Swiftwing
All of the Doman names thusfar follow 8bitbadguy's stated rules, plus the added fact that all of them have only 3 Japanese characters written as romaji as the first name.
I thought it might be interesting to add some further information, as it may not immediately be obvious to people who don't read Japanese: the "second" names of the Domans we've seen so far are actually English allusions to their "first" names.
Take Yugiri, for example. The "-giri" part of her name is likely to be 霧 ("kiri", Japanese for "mist"). Hence, the Eorzean/English appellation, "Mist-walker".
Interestingly, Oboro also refers to "haziness" or "mistiness", except that in this case, it's an adjective for the moon. Hence, his second name, "Moonrise".
Karasu is literally the "crow" in Japanese. Hence the appellation of "Redbeak", which I believe to be a reference to the blood on his hands — the man is a traitor to his people, responsible for the deaths of his comrades, after he betrayed them to the Empire.
So, with the above in mind, Midori Gladerunner sounds authentic, as "Midori" literally means "green" in Japanese, and is often used to describe the colour of leaves.
Similarly, "Tsubasa" is Japanese for "wing", so Skyturner is a likely appellation for someone with that name.
Orochi Bluescale, on the other hand, would probably need a little bit more work. "Orochi" literally means "big snake" in Japanese. Rather than Bluescale, I'd suggest an appellation like "Forkedtongue", for example, or something else along those lines.
Sakura Darkblade would also need some tweaking, since Sakura, or "cherry blossom", is literally the opposite of "dark" and sinister.
Actually, I would say Bluescale fits a little better then Forkedtongue, since well, snakes have scales, and forked tongue seems a little too on the nose. I do think you are right about Sakura though, and while a last name like Springfield might be too abvious, names like Petaldancer or Meadowkeeper seem like nice fits.
Alduin Firstborn
Point taken. :)
Anyway, if you guys need ideas for plausible Japanese/Doman first names, I'd suggest taking a look at the names of ships from the Imperial Japanese Navy. Some of them were oddly poetic, especially the names of the "special type" Fubuki (吹雪, literally, "blown snow", or more appropriately, "flying snow" or "driven snow") class destroyers.
It's not as far-fetched as you may think. Yugiri (夕霧, "evening mist") and Oboro (朧, "gloom"), for example, were the names of two destroyers from this class. ;)
(And yes, my current guilty pleasure is the Kantai Collection anime. :D )
This is an excellent observation! Thank you for expanding. I think keeping these tips in mind would be key to creating a believable and cohesive Doman name.
-- In regards to the Au Ra, though, I wonder if they'll be able to keep nuances like that going with all the generated names. Based off Yugiri, I do think Au Ra (at least one of the clans) naming will follow the rules above (but there's also the very small chance Yugiri's just special and doesn't have a normal Au Ra name). As for the second clan/type of Au Ra there will inevitably be, I have no clue what kind of naming convention they'll use.
They have mentioned to be from Othard, not just Doma, and there's two clans, so they may draw from more than just Japanese naming conventions.
Yugiri is said to be an orphan, raised by Domans - so her name might not be her original Au Ra name rather than one given to her by her adopted family. Since Au Ra are somehow connected to dragons, I wouldn't be surprised if they used dragon language words instead (kind of like roegadyn ones).
That puts me hoping for a list with more dragon words than Akh or Afah xD
Her last name is Mistwalker apparently: http://finalfantasy.wikia.com/wiki/Yugiri_Mistwalker
I never knew that o.o Also never knew she was a orphan either..
Hoping for their names to be related to the dragon language :D
I'm not sure about the orphan thing. They discussed it in 2-3 forums:
The speculation was that Au Ra originate from Othard (what seems to be the only officially confirmed thing we know about them xD) that is currently under garlean control. They are likely foreigners in Doma too. (for how long??)
Speculating that Au Ra have dragonish names, Yugiris doman name leaves the idea, she might be an orphan raised by domans.
Doma is to Othard as Gridania is to Eorzea. Othard is the continent that holds Doma, so they aren't mutually exclusive. Doma is just a region of the whole.
However judging from Yugiri's hesitation to show her face, she must have encountered quite a bit of predjudice in the past so it's understandable that she might not be a familiar race to Domans as a whole.