Ask the Editors
by, The Editors
Episode 3
Hello everyone, and welcome to Episode 3. We have a slew of new questions sent in by some anonymous people who we are so grateful are participating. If you are not participating, we know who you are and we are very disappointed in you.
This weeks question comes to us via email and is an excellent one:
"What's the story behind your main's character name? (Because once upon a time, Lucas was Carmen...)"
~Anonymous
Let's start with Carmen himself, Mr. Alex “Lucas” Newbold:
“First off, it wasn’t Carmen, it was Carman. No one ever spelled that right. Rhoad feels my pain I’m sure.
Unlike a lot of Realms players, I’m not on my first or even second character. I started out in 1992 as Alcar (based off a D&D character I’d been playing), played him for a few years of teenage angst RP, then he was trapped inside of a magic wand and I needed a new PC. Carman was around for two years, to the month. He was a Rogue, Healer/Mage, who died in a glorious sacrifice under a goblin city. The origin of his name? Well, someone said “get to the Car, Man” and I thought it sounded cool. Lame story about the name origin though. Considering Carman was 1996-1998, whomever asked that has been around for some time…
Lucas Harkon, my longest running and current character. I put more thought into his name, and origin than I did my other characters. Lucas, was named after the creator of Star Wars, Harkon, derived from Harkonnen from Dune.
When Carman died, I felt that there was a trend in the Realms that every other character I ran into was a messy conglomerate of immortals that were half dragon, half demon, and a part human from a gypsy tribe raised by wolves that were ridden by Goblins on every other Tuesday. Also their political affiliations and religious tolerance levels seemed to be beyond open minded; demon worshiping best buds palling around with necromancers next to priests of various good guy themed gods. So I decided to be the polar opposite of all that.
When Carman died, I felt that there was a trend in the Realms that every other character I ran into was a messy conglomerate of immortals that were half dragon, half demon, and a part human from a gypsy tribe raised by wolves that were ridden by Goblins on every other Tuesday. Also their political affiliations and religious tolerance levels seemed to be beyond open minded; demon worshiping best buds palling around with necromancers next to priests of various good guy themed gods. So I decided to be the polar opposite of all that.
Lucas Harkon is a pure blood fae elf. He can trace his family lines back to the dawn of time. Squired to the King of Faerie, with zero tolerance for necromancy, demon worship, and never compromising his holier than thou values. Who despite being an immortal fae, was effectively an inexperienced 17 year old kid (I was 23 at the time), and was prone towards making the sort of life decisions that a 17 year old kid would make, while being a stick in the mud no fun violent spoil sport for half the players in the game. It was in fact, a blast to play. Thanks to time travel, dimension travel, and the like, Lucas is now an older curmudgeonly version of himself. So really, not much has changed. Well, aside from having been engaged a few times, married to a shapeshifter who was raised by gypsies, dying, becoming a Wayland blade, returning to the cycle, getting remarried, returning to the world and giving all manner of grumpy looks at people.”
Speaking of grumps, lets see what Jeremy “Nighthawk” Grayson has to say. (Also, apparently Grayson is spelled with an 'a'. Whatever noob wrote last weeks column totally spelled it wrong and is very sorry.)
“It was 2am the night before my first event and I needed a name. Nighthawk was a spin on an old BBS handle that I used”
Quick and to the point. Let's see if Mrs. Hawk is more descriptive. Lani “Gwen” Grayson, what say you?
“A few weeks before the end of my freshmen year at UConn, I was out at Bookworm’s Cafe with people after practice. We were talking about going to Tournaments of Creathorne and I realized that it was finally time to make up a character name for myself. With no experience creating any name for myself except for my AIM username, I turned to my friends. My only caveat was that I wanted a normal sounding name, having spent much of my life telling people how to pronounce my actual name. Christine was the one to come up with Gwen, and it stuck. Ironically, it became a challenge to introduce myself in Realms because if I introduced myself as Lani, people assumed it was my character name.”
Speaking of grumps, lets see what Jeremy “Nighthawk” Grayson has to say. (Also, apparently Grayson is spelled with an 'a'. Whatever noob wrote last weeks column totally spelled it wrong and is very sorry.)
“It was 2am the night before my first event and I needed a name. Nighthawk was a spin on an old BBS handle that I used”
Quick and to the point. Let's see if Mrs. Hawk is more descriptive. Lani “Gwen” Grayson, what say you?
“A few weeks before the end of my freshmen year at UConn, I was out at Bookworm’s Cafe with people after practice. We were talking about going to Tournaments of Creathorne and I realized that it was finally time to make up a character name for myself. With no experience creating any name for myself except for my AIM username, I turned to my friends. My only caveat was that I wanted a normal sounding name, having spent much of my life telling people how to pronounce my actual name. Christine was the one to come up with Gwen, and it stuck. Ironically, it became a challenge to introduce myself in Realms because if I introduced myself as Lani, people assumed it was my character name.”
Very interesting. Let's go to Jen “Areni” DeNardis-Rosa and see where her name comes from:
“The origin of my character's name has to do with her back-story. I was introduced to the game by Meg Matulewicz who plays Kyomi, a Teng Huanese character. At my first event, which was Tournaments of Teng Hua, I actually had a different name, Ehren Rane. However, when figuring out my character's back-story, I wanted some sort of Teng Huanese element so that I would have a reason to be hanging out with Kyomi and the Teng Huanese crowd at my next event, Feast of the Leviathan 4. I decided that my character would be half-Teng Huanese, and I wanted to change her name to something that looked and/or sounded like it would fit a bit better with that idea. As for the actual name, I admit there's no great story there, I really just made it up - it was just something that popped into my head that sounded cool, and ended with an "i" like Kyomi. Thereafter, my character was known as Areni Daru (though it is Stromgate now, and I got my own fancy hat to go with it), although I never styled it the way Kyomi does hers, with last name first. Since my actual name somewhat rhymes with my character's, I am also sometimes called "Jen-Areni" or "Ja-reni." Interesting fact, I was actually told by Messy a number of years later that "Areni" is the name of some sort of wine, and if you do a quick google search, you will see that it is also the name of a village in Armenia, which is best known for - you got it- production of wine, though I am not personally much of a wine drinker. So there you have it, the story behind my main character's name.”
Ehren Rane is an awesome name, but RP is important. Someone should make a character that that name would work for. And now, last but not least, let's go to Sara “Zarine” Jessop:
“OOC: Zarine was not my original name. When I was dragged kicking and screaming to my first event, one of my friends suggested the name Sarasia because it was a fantasy play on my own name. Unfortunately it sounds a lot like Sir Asia and I immediately regretted using it, but I also figured I was never coming back so who cares. Well, two years later I found myself at another event, and when they needed my name for sign in I decided that I would change it since no one was likely to remember what my name was two years earlier. I quickly decided on Zarine, taken from Zarine (Faile) ni Bashere t'Aybara, my favorite character from the Wheel of Time series (which I never completed, btw).
IC: Zarine was not her original name. Her birth name is Rosemarie DeBernier. The man who raised her called her Rosie, and since it's bad luck to have women on ships, crews of other ships jokingly called her “Scarlet Rose”. When she left the ship for love and the call of adventure, her father figure told her that if she left then she was dead to him in an vain attempt to keep her from leaving. She left anyways, because the easiest way to get her to do something is to tell her that she can't. If she was dead to him, then she decided that Rosemarie was dead too and reinvented her self as Zarine, a name that meant nothing more than that she liked it.”
So there you have it folks. The stories (or lack thereof) behind all of our names. We hope that you enjoyed this weeks episode. Maybe it made you think of the story behind your own name and you would also like to share?
Join us next week when we answer the question: “What's your opinion on alternate characters?”
Questions can be sent to Sara “Zarine” Jessop via email ( Sarajjesop@gmail.com), facebook messenger, or in person. The question box will also be making the rounds at various events. Please note if you'd like your question to remain anonymous and/or if you would like to address specific editors
“The origin of my character's name has to do with her back-story. I was introduced to the game by Meg Matulewicz who plays Kyomi, a Teng Huanese character. At my first event, which was Tournaments of Teng Hua, I actually had a different name, Ehren Rane. However, when figuring out my character's back-story, I wanted some sort of Teng Huanese element so that I would have a reason to be hanging out with Kyomi and the Teng Huanese crowd at my next event, Feast of the Leviathan 4. I decided that my character would be half-Teng Huanese, and I wanted to change her name to something that looked and/or sounded like it would fit a bit better with that idea. As for the actual name, I admit there's no great story there, I really just made it up - it was just something that popped into my head that sounded cool, and ended with an "i" like Kyomi. Thereafter, my character was known as Areni Daru (though it is Stromgate now, and I got my own fancy hat to go with it), although I never styled it the way Kyomi does hers, with last name first. Since my actual name somewhat rhymes with my character's, I am also sometimes called "Jen-Areni" or "Ja-reni." Interesting fact, I was actually told by Messy a number of years later that "Areni" is the name of some sort of wine, and if you do a quick google search, you will see that it is also the name of a village in Armenia, which is best known for - you got it- production of wine, though I am not personally much of a wine drinker. So there you have it, the story behind my main character's name.”
Ehren Rane is an awesome name, but RP is important. Someone should make a character that that name would work for. And now, last but not least, let's go to Sara “Zarine” Jessop:
“OOC: Zarine was not my original name. When I was dragged kicking and screaming to my first event, one of my friends suggested the name Sarasia because it was a fantasy play on my own name. Unfortunately it sounds a lot like Sir Asia and I immediately regretted using it, but I also figured I was never coming back so who cares. Well, two years later I found myself at another event, and when they needed my name for sign in I decided that I would change it since no one was likely to remember what my name was two years earlier. I quickly decided on Zarine, taken from Zarine (Faile) ni Bashere t'Aybara, my favorite character from the Wheel of Time series (which I never completed, btw).
IC: Zarine was not her original name. Her birth name is Rosemarie DeBernier. The man who raised her called her Rosie, and since it's bad luck to have women on ships, crews of other ships jokingly called her “Scarlet Rose”. When she left the ship for love and the call of adventure, her father figure told her that if she left then she was dead to him in an vain attempt to keep her from leaving. She left anyways, because the easiest way to get her to do something is to tell her that she can't. If she was dead to him, then she decided that Rosemarie was dead too and reinvented her self as Zarine, a name that meant nothing more than that she liked it.”
So there you have it folks. The stories (or lack thereof) behind all of our names. We hope that you enjoyed this weeks episode. Maybe it made you think of the story behind your own name and you would also like to share?
Join us next week when we answer the question: “What's your opinion on alternate characters?”
Questions can be sent to Sara “Zarine” Jessop via email ( Sarajjesop@gmail.com), facebook messenger, or in person. The question box will also be making the rounds at various events. Please note if you'd like your question to remain anonymous and/or if you would like to address specific editors
