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Renaming my Sylvari to be more lore/racially correct


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Before I knew much about Sylvari lore, culture and race etc, I named my character "Lerin Kalhari". Of course, I've since realised that Sylvari don't have surnames. Obviously, Lerin is a fairly commonly used name so I can't use just that on its own (and it's non-negotioable, all my RPG/MMO characters are reincarnations of each other. I know it's not particularly Celtic/Gaelic like most Sylvari names are but it stays). Therefore I'm needing something that would work as a title for her instead, and I'm drawing a blank. Suggestions are appreciated but what I'd really like are some ideas for areas to look at, so that I can decide on my own instead of having everyone else do the work for me...

The sylvari that you play as don't belong to any specificly named generation, to my knowledge?

If it helps, my biography questions were answered thusly:

She was born during the cycle of the duskShe dreamed of the Shield of the MoonShe believes the most improtant of Ventari's teachings is "All things have a right to grow"

I joined the Durmond Priory for my order, although in Orr I sided with the Vigil to bring in the tanks. She's a mesmer currently specialised as a chronomancer, but I might switch to mirage when I go to the PoF story.

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@Game of Bones.8975 said:All of my Sylvari have had names like: Thistletoe Flamefingers, Hothead the Cool, Spore Sprinkler, and Im Not Groot Yet.

I don't put much thought into names when creating characters because I usually change them or delete the character by Lvl 80.

It's been a bit of a dull day in work and reading that brightened my day. Thanks, I love your naming conventions!

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I named my thief/soon to be deadeye "Eoghan of the Shade" as he is likely going to strike a lot from stealth, has awakened during nighttime and Eoghan means "born of the yew", which I supposed to fit a planty race quite nicely.

Some pages on Sylvari lore tell that they can have sort of surnames by referring to a feat which makes them special or merely their "job" before becoming the commander. For example, if you plan to play a healing water Ele, call her "Lerin the Healer" or "Mender Lerin". Regarding her birth cycle, call her "Lerin of the Dusk" or "Lerin of the Twilight". Of course, this is only meant to stimulate your own inspiration. I'm sure within a given time, you'll come up with a nice name.

Edit: Give more identity to "some pages":http://altear-rpg.com/?page_id=189

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Sylvari often copy the social patterns of other races, humans in particular. Taking a surname is entirely appropriate. My own sylvari have been adopted into the extended human clan that most of my characters are part of so they share the surname.

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Specifically the lore says they don't have family names, because they don't have families (or they're all one family, depending how you look at it). There's nothing to say they have to have 1-word names, although I think most sylvari NPCs do, or they have a name and a title.

One of mine is called Bethe Arian (which means silver birch) and I think of it as being the same as names like Sarah Jane or Mary Beth. I have toyed with changing it to Betharian or Arianbethe but I don't like those as much.

But if you want a title specifically I'd probably go with something related to your biography choices or Order since you can't change them without restarting the character so there's no risk of it changing later on. Maybe something like Lerin Of The Moon for the cycle and dream choices? Or Lunar Lerin for a catchier version.

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@"chrisjfinlay.5614" said:The sylvari that you play as don't belong to any specificly named generation, to my knowledge?Not named to the player. At the end of Path of Fire, Canach makes mention of "Fifthborn" which means there's a Thirdborn and Fourthborn. Whether or not there's Sixthborn and on is unclear though.

Given Canach's comment of Fifthborn being like the super curious Elonian children, I'm willing to bet that is the post-HoT generation, the newest generation, which tends to be the most curious bunch. Which to me would mean the Commander is "officially" part of the Fourthborn generation. Alternative take would be the Fifthborn are the last generation Canach met, which would likely put it as the Commander's generation and the post-HoT is actually Sixthborn (or Seventhborn depending on how wide spaced generations are).

That said, however, you can proclaim Second/Third/Fourth/Fifth if you so desire, since your character, your story.

Other possible titles as a Priory sylvari:

  • Valiant Lerin
  • Warden/Gardener/Mender/Soundless (all sylvari groups/roles) Lerin
  • Lerin of Dusk
  • Scholar/Explorer/Magister (all Priory ranks) Lerin
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If it helps, my biography questions were answered thusly:

She was born during the cycle of the duskShe dreamed of the Shield of the MoonShe believes the most improtant of Ventari's teachings is "All things have a right to grow"

I joined the Durmond Priory for my order, although in Orr I sided with the Vigil to bring in the tanks. She's a mesmer currently specialised as a chronomancer, but I might switch to mirage when I go to the PoF story.

How about Lerin Darkhope (dusk/moon all things have a right to grow) or Shadowfaith? My necro is Nethri Silverheart for example.

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@Konig Des Todes.2086 said:

@"chrisjfinlay.5614" said:The sylvari that you play as don't belong to any specificly named generation, to my knowledge?Not named
to the player
. At the end of Path of Fire, Canach makes mention of "Fifthborn" which means there's a Thirdborn and Fourthborn. Whether or not there's Sixthborn and on is unclear though.

Given Canach's comment of Fifthborn being like the super curious Elonian children, I'm willing to bet that is the post-HoT generation, the newest generation, which tends to be the most curious bunch. Which to me would mean the Commander is "officially" part of the Fourthborn generation. Alternative take would be the Fifthborn are the last generation Canach met, which would likely put it as the Commander's generation and the post-HoT is actually Sixthborn (or Seventhborn depending on how wide spaced generations are).

That said, however, you can proclaim Second/Third/Fourth/Fifth if you so desire, since your character, your story.

Other possible titles as a Priory sylvari:
  • Valiant Lerin
  • Warden/Gardener/Mender/Soundless (all sylvari groups/roles) Lerin
  • Lerin of Dusk
  • Scholar/Explorer/Magister (all Priory ranks) Lerin

you are either firsborn or not

and the player is from the 2nd generation because they stopped after at.

after the 2nd generation its cyclesnoon dusk etc yadayada

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@infrequentia.3465 said:

@"chrisjfinlay.5614" said:The sylvari that you play as don't belong to any specificly named generation, to my knowledge?Not named
to the player
. At the end of Path of Fire, Canach makes mention of "Fifthborn" which means there's a Thirdborn and Fourthborn. Whether or not there's Sixthborn and on is unclear though.

Given Canach's comment of Fifthborn being like the super curious Elonian children, I'm willing to bet that is the post-HoT generation, the newest generation, which tends to be the most curious bunch. Which to me would mean the Commander is "officially" part of the Fourthborn generation. Alternative take would be the Fifthborn are the last generation Canach met, which would likely put it as the Commander's generation and the post-HoT is actually Sixthborn (or Seventhborn depending on how wide spaced generations are).

That said, however, you can proclaim Second/Third/Fourth/Fifth if you so desire, since your character, your story.

Other possible titles as a Priory sylvari:
  • Valiant Lerin
  • Warden/Gardener/Mender/Soundless (all sylvari groups/roles) Lerin
  • Lerin of Dusk
  • Scholar/Explorer/Magister (all Priory ranks) Lerin

you are either firsborn or not

and the player is from the 2nd generation because they stopped after at.

after the 2nd generation its cyclesnoon dusk etc yadayada

The Firstborn were born in cycles too, as there are three Firstborn per cycle (Caithe, Wynne, and Melomadies are the three Firstborn of Night, for example). Cycles just reference which time of day a sylvari was born, and not their generation or age.

The player is not Secondborn. It's made pretty obvious, especially in certain points with Canach that "all who are not Firstborn are Secondborn" is a false statement.

I believe you're misinterpreting Caithe's words during the story excerpts of Dream and Nightmare, which has Caithe telling Cadyern that line almost verbatim, but what she was meaning in saying that is, basically, that the Pale Tree only listened to the Firstborn due to the growing number of sylvari (though this would be not entirely true).

Until Canach's statement at the end of PoF, it was "Firstborn, Secondborn, then everyone else". But his statement alludes to the existence of more generations going up to and including Fifthborn at least.

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I look at this way:

My personal character in game has lore from my own mind.Of course, nothing I do affects the world, except my own.So I named my sylvari character Moon Floss, that is another phrase for toilet paper. Also the on this character I avoid the main story and cut scenes because again, in my mind he talks with deep southern accent and likes to eat French fries

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I'm not gonna be much help, I'm afraid - all my sylvari have surnames. If I do make up a last name/title, I like to look at the character and names pop into my mind on the fly. But like some people have said, sylvari do take last names if they want to. My most interesting one would be Aeris Blizzardglade - "Blizzardglade" because he got adopted into the Blizzard warband. (Doesn't make much sense from a charr point of view, but I don't care much haha)

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@infrequentia.3465 said:

@"chrisjfinlay.5614" said:The sylvari that you play as don't belong to any specificly named generation, to my knowledge?Not named
to the player
. At the end of Path of Fire, Canach makes mention of "Fifthborn" which means there's a Thirdborn and Fourthborn. Whether or not there's Sixthborn and on is unclear though.

Given Canach's comment of Fifthborn being like the super curious Elonian children, I'm willing to bet that is the post-HoT generation, the newest generation, which tends to be the most curious bunch. Which to me would mean the Commander is "officially" part of the Fourthborn generation. Alternative take would be the Fifthborn are the last generation Canach met, which would likely put it as the Commander's generation and the post-HoT is actually Sixthborn (or Seventhborn depending on how wide spaced generations are).

That said, however, you can proclaim Second/Third/Fourth/Fifth if you so desire, since your character, your story.

Other possible titles as a Priory sylvari:
  • Valiant Lerin
  • Warden/Gardener/Mender/Soundless (all sylvari groups/roles) Lerin
  • Lerin of Dusk
  • Scholar/Explorer/Magister (all Priory ranks) Lerin

you are either firsborn or not

and the player is from the 2nd generation because they stopped after at.

after the 2nd generation its cyclesnoon dusk etc yadayada

"You are either Firstborn or not" was a sarky observation by various Sylvari about how the Pale Tree seems to favour the firstborn over the subsequent generations. Not that there weren't any other generations. It was just a case of "if you're not Firstborn, you're all the same in her eyes".

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@"chrisjfinlay.5614" said:Before I knew much about Sylvari lore, culture and race etc, I named my character "Lerin Kalhari". Of course, I've since realised that Sylvari don't have surnames. Obviously, Lerin is a fairly commonly used name so I can't use just that on its own (and it's non-negotioable, all my RPG/MMO characters are reincarnations of each other. I know it's not particularly Celtic/Gaelic like most Sylvari names are but it stays). Therefore I'm needing something that would work as a title for her instead, and I'm drawing a blank. Suggestions are appreciated but what I'd really like are some ideas for areas to look at, so that I can decide on my own instead of having everyone else do the work for me...

The sylvari that you play as don't belong to any specificly named generation, to my knowledge?

If it helps, my biography questions were answered thusly:

She was born during the cycle of the duskShe dreamed of the Shield of the MoonShe believes the most improtant of Ventari's teachings is "All things have a right to grow"

I joined the Durmond Priory for my order, although in Orr I sided with the Vigil to bring in the tanks. She's a mesmer currently specialised as a chronomancer, but I might switch to mirage when I go to the PoF story.

maybe sylvari didnt have surnames... until your character started them off...

Your name seems really fitting for a sylvari anyway :D

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@"Artemisa.9013" said:If I had a Sylvari I would probably use her/his cycle as a "surname". For example, in your case: Lerin of Dusk ^-^

Do note that a name like this will appear as "Lerin Of Dusk." Sadly, we can't have the "of" be lowercase instead of capitalized. It's a minor quibble, but it's still something to consider.

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