Why the namechange of Commander?

[Lord Korag.8439]

On 11/10/2023 at 4:05 PM, Danikat.8537 said:

It's implied they reproduce asexually, meaning it's unlikely gender has any meaning for them, at least in reference to themselves

I always assumed the Elder Dragons produce "children" in a similar way the God produced Adam in the Bible. Just take a pile of dirt (specific ED material in this case) and build it (corrupt it with enough of magic it in this case).

[Kalavier.1097]

1 hour ago, Lord Korag.8439 said:

If you think that SotO is poorly written, then obviously you have never encountered the IBS. In the comparsion with (especially the scrapped second half) the IBS, the SotO is a masterpiece.

Why are you purposefully misquoting my post to make it as if I said that, when I did not?

[Danikat.8537]

1 hour ago, Lord Korag.8439 said:

I always assumed the Elder Dragons produce "children" in a similar way the God produced Adam in the Bible. Just take a pile of dirt (specific ED material in this case) and build it (corrupt it with enough of magic it in this case).

That's certainly possible. We know Primordus created minions from rock or lava and Mordremoth grew them instead of corrupting existing beings like the others did so it wouldn't surprise me if the dragons themselves were created by magic. We know Glint laid eggs, two of which hatched into Aurene and Vlast, but both hatching and growing the dragons required infusions of magic, so it would make sense for the eggs to be created by magic as well.

[VAHNeunzehnsechundsiebzig.]

On 10/13/2023 at 12:03 PM, Squee.7829 said:

You're a commander of the Pact, but nothing else. As far as the ward is concerned, you're just "some person who happens to be useful". Why would they call you commader? You don't command any of them.

 

Your rank doesn't really apply outside of the organization where you hold said rank. Sort of like how I used to be in the military. I finished my service in the reserves. While I was doing stuff for the reserves, I was addressed by my rank at the time. My normal day-to-day job was maintenance for a hotel company. Literally no one in my hotel company would  refer to my by what rank I held in the military. That would be stupid. I was just a maintenance person to the hotel. 

and still civilians who run into retired high level officers in social or professional settings refer to them by their title. And since Tyria is not USA 2023, it would be fitting to adhere to such social norms.

That is just common curtesy. 

Or at least up until a few years ago.

The wizards, just out of good behaviour, should call us commander. Because we ARE the commander. Different organization? Does not matter. We are not retired. We still have the power to call upon the pact.

You are saying that King Charles would not need to call President Biden president, because they are from different backgrounds.

 

That said, the wizards are obviously an arrogant bunch of idiots. They spend all their time to make their place look lavish and luxurious - instead of building it up to be defensible. We would do them a favour sweeping them away and replace them with some professionals.

[Kalavier.1097]

36 minutes ago, VAHNeunzehnsechundsiebzig. said:

and still civilians who run into retired high level officers in social or professional settings refer to them by their title. And since Tyria is not USA 2023, it would be fitting to adhere to such social norms.

Literally when Almorra offers the PC the spot of Pact Marshall and is declined.

Quote

Taimi: What did I hear? You're not in the Pact anymore? Wait. What do I call you? Pooh-bah?

<Character name>: Uh, no. How about we just stick with commander for now?

General Almorra Soulkeeper: Technically, it's a title for life, so you're welcome to it.

The PC adopted the title as an easy thing to call themselves for friends/contacts. 

[anninke.7469]

3 hours ago, Kalavier.1097 said:

Literally when Almorra offers the PC the spot of Pact Marshall and is declined.

The PC adopted the title as an easy thing to call themselves for friends/contacts. 

Should've gone with Pooh-bah. Maybe they'd let us keep that one 🙂

[Lord Korag.8439]

On 11/10/2023 at 4:56 AM, Konig Des Todes.2086 said:

It's more of:

Zhaitan: It, sometimes he because in 2012 "he" was a common genderless pronoun in English.

Mordremoth:It, sometimes he because in 2012 "he" was a common genderless pronoun in English.

Kralkatorrik: It, sometimes he because in 2012 "he" was a common genderless pronoun in English, but then always he in Season 4 because it just sounds better in English to shout "I am not him" rather than "I am not it" or "Grandfather look at me" rather than "Grandparent look at me".

Aurene: She

Jormag: It, unless you're a Son of Svanir who used He because they were misogynists, swapped to "they/them" in 2019 because of change in social culture.

Bubbles: It

Primordus: It, until IBS where Jormag calls Prims a He, possibly to relate Prim to Kralk.

Soo-Woe: She

Also in the English language the pronoun used to refer to a single person of unknown gender has always been ambiguous. He/him, she/her, and they/them have always been used. Prior to modern social movements he/him were most common - usually because the writer was male, as female writers tended to use she/her, like we can see in The Ecology of the Charr written by Ree Soesbee. Your claim that "they is strictly plural" is so incorrect that even the Republicans would facepalm at such a claim. It's even in the god damned APA guidelines, and to quote wikipedia:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Singular_they

So yeah, you're wrong there. "They is strictly plural" has only been true for about a century in English's grammatical ruleset. And even if it wasn't, here's a fun fact about languages:

They are ever evolving. The grammar rules you are to learn in elementary school change over time, and the rules will never be the same as they were when you were in elementary school by the time you die of old age.

This is somehow off the topic, but the plural has been usually used by the monarchs to point out that they ARE the country, the state, the people (eg. the top ones, unreachable, representing every peasant). There is also the author plural, but that is more like a colegial therm (a group of readers/thinkers/comrades representing each other).

These days we have a very few monarchs running around, so there is really no need to use it. And even those few monarchs running around are usualy adressing themselves in the singular number (Odd, isn´t it? They invented the royal plural, they have the right to use it most of all people.) 

Therefore I see no need of using the plural for a one singular person; male, female or both, as it will always be a singular being who is not (usually) a monarch nor any other kind of specific being to who the plural number ties historically (also known as the lowborns – basically the whole society back then).

You could now ask: "How would you call a nonbinary person then?" 
Obviously I would use a therm which that nonbinary person would told me. And be asured, usually it is not "they" nor "it", as I have met several and noone used those two pronouns.
And now, let me quickly rush away from this controversial theme, for we are all forced to acknowledge there is no right answer. Not in this century at least.

Back to the Elder Dragons. They naturally used gender pronouns only because the mortal languages use them, basically they were forced to for the communication.

Edited December 6, 2023 by Lord Korag.8439

[ArgothCZ.6420]

On 10/17/2023 at 11:18 AM, Kalavier.1097 said:

And then the entire army that was around the Harvest temple talks.

And the army that assaulted Zhaitan. And Mordremoth. and Kralk. And fought between Jormag and Primordus.

Every dragon killed was done with armies present, so it's not like some mystery figure in a battle with few witnesses.

 

Well, we got all shiny and then we kicked the facet of every elder dragon and then bonked Bubbles in a single swoop...

Commander constantly pulls out things bordering the impossible, with said armies as witnesses sometimes and I liked how at the start of IBS, half of the people were scared of us because we are friends with Aurene and no one knew what was in our or Aurene's head.

Sure it doesn't seem like much when we know the POV of the commander and we know it's all about luck and having a bunch of really good people around us to support us. The people around our commander are not weak nobodies too. Rytlock carries around a legendary sword and is pretty high in Charr hierarchy himself. Taimi is a genius and prodigy. Braham? Norn of prophecy. Logan? Personal guardian of the Queen and currently the leader of the Pact. Probably the "least useful" was Rox so far, but still, she managed to keep up with our commander and later command the whole Olmakhan tribe and handle the politics around them.

Also, it's important to say we did most of the important killing. Armies were there just to clean up the way and/or create a diversion and we did the killing mostly out of the view. Mordremoth? Kralk? We went deep into some cave. Balthazar? We killed him in the middle of the Brand while being watched probably only by Kralk. Only the Zhaitan was killed in front of an army as we pelted him with fireballs.

[LoserCat.5897]

It's probably not permanent because you can't just straight up change the MC's name that everyone recognizes them by. Although the whole "they aren't commanding anything" is only half true, really, they could call up Logan and get an airship fleet wherever, they admit it themselves in the story journal. Probably just another 'Champion' nickname that's more jarring because there's less contact with the outside world.