So, you named your character after lore conventions. What did you name them & why?

[TinyRedLeaf]

In the case of my main character, a midlander hyur, his lore-compliant name isn't particularly fancy in any way. But as was the case with all my RPG characters, it took a considerable amount of time before I came up with a name for him.

I started this game as far back as version 1.0. I had already decided that my midlander would begin in Limsa Lominsa. Based on what little I knew then of the city-state, I imagined it to be a fantasy version of early modern England, a martime society that was on the cusp of industrialisation.

So, the surname "Battersea" came easily: It's the name of a famous power station in London (that's now been converted into an art gallery). I chose it because of its literal reference to the sea, and for its historical association with industrialisation.

After that, it was a matter of coming up with a first name that would go well with "Battersea". I eventually settled on "Lyland" (liːlənd). The second syllable "-land" juxtaposed nicely with the "-sea" in Battersea. Moreover "Lyland" was inspired by an actual name, Leyland, which was associated with a variety of things in early industrial England. So, it was an apt fit overall for the character concept I had in mind.

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I also chose lore-compliant names for Lyland's two retainers, the first and older of which I have since turned into an alt.

C'lafhina Tykha: Lafhina of the coeurl tribe, daughter of C'tykha Nunh. Her first name in full is pronounced as Kalafina. Yes, she's named after the famous Japanese vocal group. I'm a fan.

Kazaori: An au ra of the Raen clan, a Doman kunoichi dispatched to Lyland by Yugiri, shortly after the bloody banquet in Ul'dah. "Kazaori" is a rare, but actual professional name once used by Japanese courtesans (oiran). It means "bending in the wind (風折)", a metaphor for resilience. There's a backstory behind this, but I'll leave it at that for now.

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Besides the two retainers, there's another major character in Lyland's backstory who doesn't feature in the main storyline, simply because she's already dead. She's Ahtynswys Denkyrdaegwyn (the "Sister who Judges", daughter of "Thinking Soldier", later known as Elildaeg, "Exiled Soldier"). Ahtynswys was Lyland's arcanist mentor, who was killed in the tsunami unleashed by Leviathan upon Western La Noscea about two or three years before the events of ARR. The massive tidal wave travelled as far south as the Ciedalaes, where Lyland comes from.