It co-occurs in a post where you use also used the name Reccilda, and, well, it's not just that Reccilda only appears on these forums in Thelxiope's posts about glitch quests; it's basically unique
on the Internet level as well.
@tomoyo I fall into the rabbithole of ninuanni names easily enough on my own you don't need to kick me in
Whatever
I guess this is what I'm doing today.
Ninuanni Names
So, astute readers may have noticed that the various beings from the Not in this quest all have unusual names that sound like they belong together, like they're from the same culture:
Eilind. Kaisia Glislitha. Colgares. Reccilda Tanry.
And even characters who have yet to show up but who I have already named, such as:
Sallarchos. Sagadé Gladiel. Lagavi.
These names are "in" Ninuanni, the language that is spoken by the Peoples of the Void. I use the scare quotes because Ninuanni, rather than being an actual con-lang that Dr. Jenna Moran spent umpteen years inventing from scratch, is instead, as a form of translation convention
1, represented by Gothic; because, well:
Glitch: A Story of the Not pg. 379 said:
The Goths are, to the best of the author's ability to determine, extinct, and functionally immune to slander;
as the architects of the fall of Rome, their reputation in Western society is not the best; their names are close
enough to English names that the author can have some sense of them; and, finally, those names have in them an ominous, archaic feel that is fitting to the aesthetic of the game.
Excrucian names thus borrow heavily from the names of the Goths; from various attested or reconstructed Gothic roots; or from good old-fashioned making things up - because Jenna has a PhD in Computer Science and not in extinct Germanic languages; and was writing a tabletop game, not a thesis.
So, Excrucian names are dithematic - they're generally made from two roots, each of which (as words do) means something. This is really not that different from how
most names work, apart from the near-universal two-element thing Ninuanni names have going on; and this means that you can look at a Ninuanni name -
"Reccilda," for example -
And decompose it into its roots:
Recca-, Recce-: "Fantastic"
-hild, -hilda, -ilda: "Game"
Reccilda. "Fantastic Game."
And this is fine. It's, you know.
It works.
There's a table of name-roots in one of
Glitch's appendices and -
It produces fine names.
But, well -
... it's not quite ...
extra ... enough. Not for the Riders. Not for the Great Host of the Excrucians, who seek to make an ending to the world, and who are the
most melodramatic people imaginable.
So, each of these name-roots also has associated with it a scrap of poetry - a
luthe - which, when combined with the
other root in the name, make a cool little poem.
There are, thus, are three readings for a given Ninuanni name:
One is, just, the actual sounds. "Reccilda"
Two is the meaning. "Fantastic Game"
And third is the
luthe, the name-poem.
And you recall, in that moment, as you see my face, that tales of me have long already flung themselves—on raven's wings!—into your beating heart:
a glittering and ever-shifting game.
This is
extremely cool and was a
ton of work on Jenna's part; and due to word count limitations it had to be cut from the final book, which is just a tragedy.
...thankfully, Jenna published all of that work as a 19-post series on her tumblr.
This is the last entry in that series, which contains links to the previous entries because I'm not making twenty hyperlinks. It is a
fascinating read, and I enthusiastically recommend it just for, like, the information on the process and background of even
making the list of names in
Glitch.
And it also has a couple hundred example
luthes to play with.
But anyway, enough babbling about context. How about a practical example?
So, when I invented Reccilda off the top of my head for a bit 2 years ago, I didn't know she was eventually going to show up in a quest I would be running. I didn't know much about her at all, actually.
I knew her name was Reccilda, because I liked the way those two name-roots meshed. It's a good sound and a neat
luthe.
Excrucian surnames are usually locational
2, but sometimes, particularly with praise-names or acclamational names, can be just ... another standard name. And I like Ninuanni names, so - again, two years ago, having no idea that Reccilda was going to go on to be anything more than an example - I gave her another Ninuanni name as a surname:
"Tanry," meaning "Promised Commander," and with the
luthe:
I, the star of the promised day, have come:
I alone may rule.
And this was fine for an example; but in the intervening years, as Reccilda turned from a random one-off to a more fully-enfleshed character with a history and a personality and all, her name expanded.
(Eilind's name very much has not, for several reasons: she's less assimiliationist than Reccilda is; less tied into human society; and also, um, just a lot older and more mature; and stylistically, slightly less over-the-top. There may also be a cultural element to it - Reccilda is from southern Ninuan, while Eily is from the west; and there might be some differences in naming customs.)
"Isang" and "Cooper" are not Ninuanni names. They are Creational names, and Reccilda took them as a point, as a gesture: a way of signaling her withdrawal from the business of War and willingness to engage with Creation in ways other than violence.
Also she got adopted and it's really very useful on the paperwork to have her last name match her mom's.
Isang and Cooper do not have
luthes, and the very idea of
making luthes for them is, at best, something that loyalist Excrucians are likely to roll their eyes at.
That said, I do think that Reccilda is still extra enough to want to have a
luthe for her name in its entirety, just in case she really needs to get all offended-dignity and go "do you have any idea who I am" and list off her name and titles and accomplishments.
And
this is a fun opportunity because it means we have to ask ourselves, and by 'we' I mean I:
What is the dramatic name poem for "someone who makes barrels"?
We'll start with Reccilda's -
Well, it's not actually a 'middle' name if we want to be technical, it's a second first name; naming traditions are complicated -
We'll start with "Isang".
Isang, for those who have never heard it, is ... essentially the Cebuano or Tagalog form of "Izzy". It's "Isabel
3 + ng," which is a diminutive suffix. It was originally a nickname, but - over time, as happens - just became a normal name.
Isabel is Spanish - the Spanish conquest of the Phillipines just
obliterated the indigenous naming practices and even most of the
names, it's awful - but anyway, it's the Spanish form of 'Elizabeth'.
Well, what does Elizabeth mean?
Elizabeth is a biblical name, ultimately from אלישבע - "My God Is An Oath"
This is good, in that that is a cool, evocative name.
This is problematic, in that if you talk about God to an Excrucian, they will likely immediately jump to thinking about Cneph Creator, who invented reality; and who the Excrucians despise and hate beyond all others.
What I'm saying is that Ninuanni does not have a lot of nice, usable name-roots relating to God.
Also, very strangely, there's not really a lot of
oath stuff in the roots we have.
We could just
invent a poem outright, but ... working within restrictions is fun.
So, we have to ask - what is
meant by "my God is an oath"?
Forget the literal, we're not making that from the roots we have. What's the
feeling?
To me, there are two elements to this name: the idea of a greater power outside the self, something high and holy and good; and the idea of an oath, a promise, something solid and binding and true.
...so for the first part, well, the closest thing we know the Excrucians have to religious devotion is going to come in their ideas of 'void' or 'formlessness' - both of which the Riders traditionally construe as positive things, as a limitless well of
potentiality, as a fruitful, life and meaning-giving power.
We have a couple other options, like 'virtuous' or 'sacral,' but ... eh. Not great.
We'll probably go with 'formless' here; which leads to the second half -
There's not really a good root for 'oath' in the extant Ninuanni roots.
There's.... "Urged to", which is .... no. There's "Promised" which is also no, and is already in Reccilda's name. Nope.
There's "Law," which, ha ha,
no. The Ninuanni conception of Law is as something evil, c.f. Creation and its Law-Beings.
So we need something
like an oath, something with the same energy, same imagery,
as an oath.
...I'm drawn to "Good"-
"I am rock to faith; I am all truths' name" - as carrying the same
idea as an oath: the idea of being trustworthy, and dependable, and solid.
So, my sort of back-translation of Isang into Ninuanni to create a
luthe for it is probably going to be like:
"I am rock to faith; I am all truths' name:
I am the soundless, the formless; inexhaustible, inextinguishable; I am the sower and the raiser of all things"
Which is super self-aggrandizing but look humility is not one of Reccilda's virtues. Also, to some extent, there is an external identification happening here: she's sort of saying, "the silvered void works through me; I am a vessel for the primordial formlessness," which is at least a
little better.
Cooper.
Barrel-maker.
Hmm.
There are a surprising number of peaceful, everyday names in the Ninuanni roots we have - though the Strategists are creatures of war
now, long ago most of them at least thought of themselves as gentle protectors; as people with slow, unpretentious, calm fates.
That said, we don't have "barrel-maker," or even "barrel."
I'm tempted to go for a
Hobbit reference - something about lakes and rivers and such - but ...
hmmm nah.
Next tack. What is a barrel?
It's a - it's a thing that holds stuff.
Do we have a container word?
A check reveals the best we have is ... Chalice. Also grave, by way of a Ninuanni pun.
...
I can work with it.
What
sort of chalice is a barrel, though?
Is it a generous chalice? Maybe, but the
luthe for generous is weirdly grim - 'gold-filled graves' and such, generously offering death, it's a whole thing.
Is it ... homey? Home-made? Both are potentially true, but I don't necessarily like the
luthes for either.
...
after some thought, I think I'm going to go with a barrel being a
treasured chalice, because that gets at this idea of a barrel being tightly sealed and locked away in darkness. Is it amazing? No. But to be perfecly honest this has taken hours and I am
tired.
Treasured Chalice will have to -
wait
A thought.
What are barrels
for? For storing things. For storing drink and food, good things, against the cold; to stockpile them for when they're needed.
Be less literal. Not 'treasured chalice,' but rather, 'treasured merriment':
Most precious treasure of the realm; most tightly locked away:
a merry celebration! Hubbub, drink, and laughter last until the day's first light.
This means that Reccilda's full name, if recited at the height of her pompousness and desire to impress and awe, becomes something akin to:
fantastic game; my god is an oath (formless good); promised commander; barrel maker (treasured merriment)
And you recall, in that moment, as you see my face, that tales of me have long already flung themselves—on raven's wings!—into your beating heart:
visions of a glittering and ever-shifting game.
I am rock to faith; I am all truths' name:
I am the soundless, the formless; inexhaustible, inextinguishable; the sower and the raiser of all things.
I, the star of the promised day, have come:
and I alone may rule.
So let the most precious treasures of the realm; most tightly locked away, be opened at last!
Let there be a merry celebration! Hubbub, drink, and laughter shall last until the day's first light.
...
This is extra
af; and realistically I have to imagine that it probably makes Reccilda sound very childish or
extraordinarily smug to the Ninuanni ear; but I have to tell you, I am here for it.
Also Riders in general tend towards smugness, so, honestly she's probably not alone in going this over the top.
1 Akin to the way that Westron is just localized as English in The Lord of the Rings - hobbits were not 'actually' named things like Samwise or Meriadoc in the secondary world.
2 Eily, for instance, did some great and terrible thing in the vicinity of Salmydessus; and became known as "Eilind Who Did That Awful Thing Near Salmydessus," then as "Eilind the Salmydessan," then as "Eilind 'Eily' Salmydessa" over time.
3 Or possibly Luisa, which would trace back to ... Ludwig, actually - "Famous battle". And while that is trivial to render in Ninuanni, as 'Hludvig' - "Dream-Drenched Battlefield4" - I decided Reccilda already had enough martial stuff in her name, and wouldn't want a fight-y name as one of her Creational ones.
4 Drowned for an age past the shores of dream:
one lone figure, trudging forward, through metal, ringing, screams, and blood.