The names of the Fae Folk (MSQ and sidequest spoilers for Il Mheg)

[annabunches]

The names of the fae folk in Il Mheg follow a specific convention based on creating meanings from “runes of power.” This appears to be entirely separate from their usual language, (used for place names and spoken by Feo Ul) which appears to be based on either Gaelic or Welsh, and in any case is beyond my area of expertise.

Fae folk names are directly referenced in the quests “What’s in a Name” and “The Path to Popularity”. (English translation names) Notably, all of the fae races (Pixies, Fuath, Nu Mou, Amaro) use the same naming convention, except for the Amaro with one-word names, who were presumably all named by the non-fae species. (see the MSQ quests in Wolekdorf)

The two quests that discuss fae names give meanings for 10 of the name parts, and heavily imply the meaning for an 11th. (Tyr) However, there are 24 distinct name parts used in Il Mheg, leaving us with 13 name parts that are given no in-game translation.

Based on the meanings given in-game, the morphology of the name parts, and the number of existing name parts, I’m extremely confident that fae folk names in Il Mheg are based entirely on the runes of the Elder Futhark, a real-world historical writing system used between the 2nd and 8th centuries throughout northern Europe. The specific names are mostly based on the Anglo-Saxon versions of those rune names, and additionally the word forms have been changed around a bit from the common English transliterations of those words. (some ‘L’s mutate into ‘R’s, which is explained somewhat by rendering them into Japanese and back, some letters are transposed, some letters are dropped, etc) In some cases the name parts don’t line up exactly to any historical rune name, so there are a few guesses here, but the combination of so many of the morphological components lining up well, and the given meanings working out so well, makes me confident that this analysis holds water.

So here’s my working list. Names marked with a * have their meaning directly explained or heavily implied in-game. All others are interpolated from historical rune names.

Feo* - treasure
Ul* - moon, darkness
Thon - thorn
Ose - speech, mouth
Lad - travel (also literally ‘to ride’, which could be interpreted as ‘hard worker’)
Kenn - torch, fire
Gyuf - gift
Uin* - happiness
Hagan - hail (metaphorically, ‘storm’)
Nee - need
Ys - ice
Iala* - turning of the seasons
Jul* - yew
Wyd - celebration? feasting? (see notes)
Sul* - flower
Sigun* - sun, light
Tyr* - warrior
Beq - birch
Eo* - star, ‘lesser light’
Marn - mankind
Aenc* - water
An - (this one is complicated, see notes)
Daen - dawn
Oul* - land, earth

cont.

[annabunches]

As I said before, there are a few complete guesses on this list. It’s very possible the lore team internally bent some of these meanings to either feel more appropriate to the fae folk, or to line up with existing thematic elements in Final Fantasy. sun / moon / star is the obvious example of the latter, where only ‘sun’ has that meaning in the historical runes. I wouldn’t be surprised if the 6 elements appear as well, since the historical runes give us reasonable choices already for fire, earth, water, and ice. Hagan would be a good candidate in that case for ‘lightning’, and possibly Ose for ‘wind’; both are stretches from the original meanings, but less so than Ur for moon/darkness.

You can see my full list of correspondences, along with working notes, at https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets...it?usp=sharing.

Feedback is welcome!

[aversatrix]

this is why i love you, you enormous dork.

[annabunches]

Update: I've discovered there are at least 25 fae folk name parts: Wyd Lor shows up in a sidequest I hadn't yet completed. More research (and finishing all the sidequests before I go off on a deep dive like this) to come.

[Arete-Nomos]

So what do you think the name An Lad means?

[Berteaux_Braumegain]

I would assume "dream travel" based on their role in the plot so far.

[colorfulcheshire]

I was hunting down some meanings since the journal doesn't keep good record for me and I'm glad I came across this. Suggestion! I think "Mheg" means garden as taken from Il Mheg and from Lyhe Mheg─the Garden of Dreams (from the new beast tribe). I'm assuming that "Lyhe" means Dreams from this and from Lyhe Ghiah, the fae castle. I'd like to use NG+ to go back and carefully take down notes of epithets and other names given to fae-named places. ATM, i dont recall if Il Mheg was given another name other than something to do with rainbows I think.

[MrThinker]

I was hunting down some meanings since the journal doesn't keep good record for me and I'm glad I came across this. Suggestion! I think "Mheg" means garden as taken from Il Mheg and from Lyhe Mheg─the Garden of Dreams (from the new beast tribe). I'm assuming that "Lyhe" means Dreams from this and from Lyhe Ghiah, the fae castle. I'd like to use NG+ to go back and carefully take down notes of epithets and other names given to fae-named places. ATM, i dont recall if Il Mheg was given another name other than something to do with rainbows I think.

Il Mheg is translated as "Kingdom of Rainbows". Most apparent when Feo Ul becomes the new Titania and says something to the effect of "Long live the kingdom of rainbows" in Fae (the Fae is translated in the text box). Now we have Lyhe Mheg = Garden of Dreams and Il Mheg = Kingdom of Rainbows. Is it possible that Mheg carries 2 meanings? Yes. Is it likely for a fictional language? I can't say.

[SunAurel]

Kinda related but my character is named Sun Aurel and the Quest about the fairy names gave my character the name Sigun which also means Sun so that was a really cool coincidence

[ShadowMeowth]

Il Mheg is translated as "Kingdom of Rainbows". Most apparent when Feo Ul becomes the new Titania and says something to the effect of "Long live the kingdom of rainbows" in Fae (the Fae is translated in the text box). Now we have Lyhe Mheg = Garden of Dreams and Il Mheg = Kingdom of Rainbows. Is it possible that Mheg carries 2 meanings? Yes. Is it likely for a fictional language? I can't say.

In one of the sidequests at Wolekdorf where you help an amaro stand watch at two points, he explains later that the fae folk did not always call their leader "king", but they were simply referred to as Titania, ruler of the pixies. But when the fae folk battled the sin eaters and saw the King of Voeburt leading their armies so bravely even though they fell in battle, in remembrance of their valor and how bravely was fighting Titania, they bestowed upon them the title of "king". All of this basically being an explanation that the fae folk only adopted the notion of "king" and "kingdom" in memory of the Voeburtites, and so Il Mheg meaning "Kingdom of Rainbows" could be merely modern (?) Fae and the word "mheg" has been adapted to hold further meanings. For example, Aenc Thon says that Dohn Mheg, the home of the Fuath, means "forbidden realm". So I would assume the term is closer to "the land of/the land belonging to/a land with a particularity", and then you translate them with whatever flourishes you want.