Tyranny - The Tidecaster Eb

A new dev diary and a look at a potential companion called Eb.

Eb is a member of an order of mages that study manipulation of water in all its forms, as well as spells that harness the pull of the moons, or that focus the light of the moon Terratus Grave into searing rays. Though their magic makes them formidable in battle, the School of Tides devoted their efforts to the study of the arts and cornering trade along the coasts. While these efforts gave the school prestige and acceptance, they've also turned the school into a peaceful order, one unready for war.

Kyros' conquest of the Tiers would take several years of war through the mountains, but the School of Tides were defeated with ease. Before the first Disfavored or Scarlet Chorus troops crossed into the Tiers, agents of Kyros sent threats to Occulted Jade, Archon of Tides and the school's founder and guardian. Unwilling to bow and unwilling to fight, Occulted Jade fled, taking nearly all of her disciples across the sea to parts unknown. Only four Tidecasters remained behind to fight, and of them, Eb was the youngest.

More information.

Tidemaster Eb…

This game has some odd naming conventions. Take for instance ‘Peninsula of Tiers’, ‘city-state of the Bastard Tier’ and personal names like Graven Ashe, Eb etc.

It’s almost as if they use their names to add an air of ‘cultural alienness’ to their new setting, using only English (okay, and some Greek words used out of context). So instead of Archmages, we have Archons, Stoneshields rather than Hoplites/Legionaries, Earthshakers rather than Battlemages, Tidemasters instead of Hydromancers, really odd quasi-descriptive placenames etc.

That kind of stuff has to be done very carefully and can easily be hit-or-miss. They have to be ‘in tune’ with the tone of the setting and I find it hard to get a good grasp of what that tone is in Tyranny.

For instance, you can use funny names in a lighthearted game or bombastic ones in a superhero setting (‘Ronan the Accuser’). Or they can be simultaneously boastful, witty and grounded, as in historical reality (for instance, ‘Glorious and Most Glorious City of the Sharp-nosed Fish’, the title claimed by the Roman provincial city of Oxyrhynchos in Egypt)

Graven Ashe sounds like a comic book superhero. Eb is the kind of (lousy) pun you use when you’re trying to do ‘humorous’. The setting is supposed to be grim?

Hopefully they put more effort in the gameplay and story…

The naming conventions isn't that special, I've seen things similar in other works, mostly novels. It's usually used to denote cultural simplicity. In this case, it's probably to represent the time period of the setting.

Also, Archons aren't Archmages, they are very powerful people of any martial disciplines with special powers. Their is a whole blog that explain them.

Also, Stone Shields is written as two words and I've seen nothing that would suggest it means hoplites/legionaires directly. It sound more like a sub-faction inside the Disfavored, it has both the Iron Guards and the Stone Shields.

Hmm - wasn't Eb the name of the world from that faintly interactive screen saver, Dungeon Siege?
Edit: Ahh whoops, that was Ehb. The difference an h can make eh?

The interesting thing about this companion is that she is a rebel. So I'm guessing she's only probably available if you decide to turn your back on Kairos and play "a good guy."

It wouldn't be out of place to name a fire wizard Ignius, or some such thing. This is just along similar lines.

Originally Posted by rjshae
It wouldn't be out of place to name a fire wizard Ignius, or some such thing. This is just along similar lines.

It's tacky like Hell. In my gaming group we gave those kinds of names to characters in our acne-plagued larval phase. Worth a chuckle and rolling our eyes then, now it's good for a laugh and rolling our eyes. But not a good kind of laugh.

Originally Posted by azarhal
The naming conventions isn't that special, I've seen things similar in other works, mostly novels. It's usually used to denote cultural simplicity. In this case, it's probably to represent the time period of the setting.

Good for you, but I actually only encounter this when it is used for Plains Indian names (for instance, Crazy Horse), which is a bit of an oddity - perhaps a legacy of the 19th century. The only other place where I ran into this odd kind of naming is in Gene Wolfe's Soldier in the Mist, where the main character, who has a peculiar kind of amnesia, calls Athens 'Thought' and Sparta 'Rope' (Wolfe's explanation is that the main character, a Roman, mistranslates local placenames). Wolfe uses the 'normal' Greek, Latin and Persian personal names though, not their meaning translated into English.

When it comes to 'simple' cultures (like, say, 'Stone Age' cultures, whether in a Caveman & Dinosaur or a more 'prehistorical' Palaeolithic/Mesolithic setting), there is a tendency to use simple names (one or two syllables for instance). However, these tend to be short but not in English…

Also, Archons aren't Archmages, they are very powerful people of any martial disciplines with special powers. Their is a whole blog that explain them.

Also, Stone Shields is written as two words and I've seen nothing that would suggest it means hoplites/legionaires directly. It sound more like a sub-faction inside the Disfavored, it has both the Iron Guards and the Stone Shields.

Arzahal: I've read those blogs, and Archons appear to basically some kind of Archmage, meaning powerful, pre-eminent magic users who also founded/inspired schools of magic. The latest blog make it eminently clear that this is certainly the case with the 'Archon of Tides'. That the background blabla is different from other types of fantasy Archmage - well, there is not a single definition for the term, but the overall meaning is pretty much similar. Their 'origin' is kept a little mysterious, but that's just a bit of window dressing (miraculously acquiring their tremendous powers rather than studying / intriguing their way up the hierarchy).


As for the hoplite thing:

"Stoneshields they fight with spear and shield — large tower shields. They create the phalanx that everyone else revolves around. The shields they carry are massive iron tower shields that are very heavy to carry around. When the shields join together in the phalanx, they got their names from the idea that the enemies break against the shield wall like waves on a stone. That’s the core of the Disfavored army."

Crescent Runners
"Supporting them is a group called Crescent Runners. They’re the greek hoplites. Much more like skirmishers, they’ll run ahead of the army and harass the enemy with javelins and other thrown attacks trying to provoke the enemy into the charge, at which point the crescent runners run back behind the phalanx and allow the enemies to break themselves against the spears and shield wall itself. Then they’ll harass with more javelin attacks while they’re fighting."

Source: 'Obsidian's Tyranny: A story of bronze, iron and evil'


The Stoneshield, not the Crescent Runner description fits Greek hoplites (the tower shield is more a Roman thing, although earlier troops arrayed in what looks like a phalanx also used a similar shield).



But Heins appears to be confusing hoplites with peltasts here, who were, indeed, named after the somewhat crescent-shaped shield they wore as their only means of protection. Of course, could be the Polygon journalist’s memory is at fault here – but there are no corrections or comments by Obsidian in sight, so I assume the article properly represents what Heins actually said.

Basically, Heins is referring to troop types. The very names themselves betray this, as the ‘shield’ in the name Stone Shields immediately brings to mind the hoplon, the specific type of shield worn by hoplites (later synonymous with a hoplite’s equipment). Likewise, the ‘Crescent’ of the Crescent Runners is immediately recognisable as a take on the crescent-shaped shield (pelte) of the historical peltasts.

What I find odd and more than a little 'overwrought' is that two reasonably well-known Greek terms (hoplite a bit better known than peltast) are ditched in favour of two awkward-sounding self-invented terms. At the same time, the game happily uses two Greek terms (classical Greek Archon and Byzantine Greek Exarch) and slaps two completely new meanings on them.

My feeling is that PoE was a bit more carefully constructed when it came to the use of language and terminology (not all of it equally fortunate, though it was pretty good when it came to placenames). It's not a dealbreaker by itself though (gameplay ueber alles, then characters, then story, then world, in that order).

I rather like the naming conventions I have seen so far and don't bother to try and shoehorn games into Earth based history or terminology. I tend to treat games like games and less like research papers.

Liked the information on Eb and as another said interesting that she is a rebel. I am big on companions on games so always enjoy reading up more about them.

Nice posts Fluffy.
I suppose its easiest to use a combination of English/fantasy naming conventions rather than sticking to a set era (unless of course the game is specific to that era).

I would prefer that language development for names and places was focused on reflecting a history/event or sense of place. Most artificial languages seem to ignore these factors and rely on real world languages with a twist thus making bizarro versions of things we are familiar with.

Arl instead of Earl is not very convincing because it has no ties to the fantasy world we're inhabiting and instead highlights the artificiality. Sure its different but recognizable but its just different for the sake of it.

For example a forest burning down and leaving a desert. The desert area should reflect what the location represented to the people. Maybe a loss of livelihood or lives. At a glance on the map the name should spark some intrigue and mystery.

I'm not good with fantasy names but I know interesting areas or names when I see them.

Originally Posted by Fluffyhotep
It's tacky like Hell. In my gaming group we gave those kinds of names to characters in our acne-plagued larval phase. Worth a chuckle and rolling our eyes then, now it's good for a laugh and rolling our eyes. But not a good kind of laugh.

Well it's better than Bob.

Originally Posted by rjshae
Well it's better than Bob.

Well, my first cRPG character was a half-goblin (?) named Shlurpz the Slimy.
What can I say? I was a teenager at the time

Originally Posted by Silver
I would prefer that language development for names and places was focused on reflecting a history/event or sense of place. Most artificial languages seem to ignore these factors and rely on real world languages with a twist thus making bizarro versions of things we are familiar with.

Arl instead of Earl is not very convincing because it has no ties to the fantasy world we're inhabiting and instead highlights the artificiality. Sure its different but recognizable but its just different for the sake of it.

It’s not just the transparently lazy and derivative nature of this ‘neo-terminology’ (PoE is guilty of this just as Dragon Age) that is annoying.

Speaking as a trained historian – there’s a reason why we put generally accepted terminology in our own language in our work, unless it’s highly specialised stuff. Using the respective ‘culturally correct’ titles, terms and concepts is extremely tiresome and makes already information-dense texts well-nigh unreadable. Yes, we know that the Byzantine Emperor (in the 12th century at least) is the Basileios ton Rhomaion, or that the Irish High King is the Ard Rí, or that a medieval Hungarian ‘count’ is an Ispán or a Duke a Ban. We’ll even mention it in passing or in the footnotes but keep it out of the main text unless we’re being hyper-specialized or super-pedantic.
Exceptions to this general rule are terms that are very specific and/or fairly generally known (Japanese Shogun, Roman consul, Old Norse jarl etc.) or which would otherwise be confusing.

Amateur worldbuilders don’t seem to realise this. They seem to think they need to have ‘unique, culturally distinct’ titles and terms in their worldbuilding infodumps and then they go crazy (in a half-baked way) on inventing mostly highly derivative ‘neo-terminologies’. Sometimes they just 'borrow' a word and stick an entirely new meaning to it.
As if the reader/gamer doesn’t already have a hard time catching up on the rest of the lore of the world, never mind learning the rules of the game and struggling with the UI.

The real pros knew better. Professor T. didn’t bother his readers with the Numénorean title of the Gondorian king - but he did have unique names for things entirely of his own creation (places, various critters). His younger American colleague professor Barker, creator of Tékumel (kudos to anyone recognising the name ) didn’t bother his readers with the proper ‘native’ title of the Emperor of Tsolyánu. Well, not unless you dug into his linguistic appendices / background articles…
The late Robin Crossby (not a linguist, but savvy enough in this area) had the various ‘native’ titles in his world of Harn all worked out, but an Earl is simply called an Earl, a Duke a Duke, etc.

For example a forest burning down and leaving a desert. The desert area should reflect what the location represented to the people. Maybe a loss of livelihood or lives. At a glance on the map the name should spark some intrigue and mystery.

I'm not good with fantasy names but I know interesting areas or names when I see them.

Reality 1.0 is a good source of inspiration here. It’s also a good way of recognising real-life naming patterns that helps in inventing new names and avoiding names that sound ‘off’. Not talking ‘Realism Ueber Alles’ here, but rather ‘Real Life As Inspiration’. Humans are pattern-recognising animals and, given a modicum of knowledge/experience and a somewhat functioning brain, have a knack for seeing through overly artificial inventions.

Most placenames are simple descriptions when you analyse them. For instance, my hometown’s name is supposed to be derived from a compound word Deve-treo meaning ‘stream (with a) bunch of trees’, in other words, I’m from ‘Riverwood’ .
Names only become interesting when they are in another language (or an archaic version of your own) or when the name itself, like you mentioned, ‘begs a question’.

An example from my country would be the Verdronken Land van Saeftinghe’, or ‘Drowned Land of Saeftinghe’. What was Saeftinghe? How and why did it become ‘drowned’? What is left there? How does it look now?

And as a DM: ‘how can I use this as inspiration?
(one possible answer: turn it to 11: ‘The Twice-drowned Land of X’ )