House of Cards GM Log

IMC: Naming Customs

posted by Ginger at 07:13 PM, July 22, 2003 | Filed under : IMC | Comments and Followups

This exercise comes from Jvstin and Arref.

In House of Cards, the maternal descriptors Jvstin was originally describing aren’t that common, except maybe in the elder generation. In general, we use the Everway naming plan, although PCs aren’t obliged to follow it. Some do (Folly), some don’t (Jerod) and some are in the middle (Paige and Conner).

Since most names are unique, there isn’t a reason for royals to have surnames in Amber proper. In the younger generation, the kids seem to prefer patronymics like ‘FitzRandom’ and ‘Brandson’ and matronymics like (I suspect) ‘Fionasdottir’. This fits with the pseudo-medieval style we use in Amber.

Shadow names vary by shadow origin. Rikibeth mentions that Solange has used the nom-de-shadow “Suzanne Fitzgerald” at university. Paige and Lucas use their shadow surnames, Sommers and St. Just, respectively. Folly also has a shadow surname, Mayhap, but she seems to have dropped it in Amber. The PCs haven’t seen it yet, but Martin has taken to using the surname Chance after his father’s usage in Texorami.

The players tend to describe the younger generation based on their Amber parent. Hence we have ‘Juliani’ and ‘Gerardelli’. I’m not sure that’s an in-character custom, however. Interestingly, the redheads are all ‘Clarissi’.

17 Comments

Madeline
Jul 22, 2003 8:09 PM

The redheads all seem much more close-knit and similar to each other than Gerard and Julian (and Ysabeau) do. Plus, "Rilgii" sounds stupid. :)

Leslie
Jul 23, 2003 12:27 AM

Riiiiight. Obviously, Brita and Brennan are the spitting image of one another. And Paige and Conner? How *do* you tell them apart? Whereas Jovian and Robin are like day and er... day. ;) As a side note, I was tending toward 'Rilgans', myself.

Claire Bickell
Jul 23, 2003 6:39 AM

I do like Rilgans. Or Rilga's Boys. Though I like that because it has Lily White Boys overtones, and I find that association amusing and interesting. Though I understand that the symbolism for them is slightly different in the US.

Jeff Dougan
Jul 23, 2003 7:03 AM

*thinks for a few moments*

Would that make the Merlin, Marius, Jerod, and Cambina all Faiellans? Or is there a better adjective for them?

(I don't think I'm missing any of the grandchildren from the appropriate queen...)

Mark
Jul 23, 2003 7:14 AM

Clearly I'm going to have to work up a post re: brat taxonomy...Merlin for instance is genus Faiellensis, species Corvii. While there is speculation that another specimen of F. Corvii exists, the claim has yet to be confirmed. Jovian is of course genus Rilganis, species Juliani. While other male R. Juliani are believed to survive, the only female of the species believed extant has turned out to be a misclassified R. Ysabensis, of which two are known to exist in nature.

I shouldn't try to do this before I've had caffeine....

Ginger
Jul 23, 2003 9:41 AM

At some point we'll have to compile and post the log of Brita's current thread. She's definitely the most "non-redheaded" of the redheads, and yet there's no doubt that she's her mother's daughter in this thread.

(Anybody who calls her the blonde redhead deserves what they get.)

Arref
Jul 23, 2003 10:26 AM

This is fun.

Madeline
Jul 23, 2003 7:43 PM

Bolthy once had this quote in his .sig file...

"No, at the first sign of danger, any group of PCs would immediately form Voltron and have that sword pulled out. No questions asked. An inhuman shriek from above? Form Voltron, draw the sword, enter battle. The sound of an explosion from over the hill? Form Voltron, draw the sword, go investigate. Telephone rings? Form Voltron, draw the sword, answer the phone."
-Steven Marsh, "Random Thought Table"

Seems distinctly applicable to the redheads, to me... ;)

As for Rilga's F2, I don't deny that they may be approaching some mean. (Particularly Daeon. He's gone all the way past mean into nasty.) But the F1 show discrete phenotypic variation...

Leslie
Jul 23, 2003 10:51 PM

You know? Right after I posted that bit about Robin and Julian... I,uh, realized that genus Rilganis may also be responsible for the widest species divergence as well -- Vere and Daeon.

I think M, M, J & C should be Faiellese. ;)

James
Jul 23, 2003 11:15 PM

You know, I could make an argument that a major reason Vere turned out the way he did is the expectation of women like Vianis that he was going to turn out like Daeon...

Novak
Jul 24, 2003 1:56 AM

Just for the record, I use the following:

Juliani: Jovian, Robin, Daeon
Gerardelli: Solange, Vere
Clarissi: Brennan, Brita, Conner, Paige, Ossian (hon)
Benedictines: Aisling, Lilly, Merlin, Dara (dishon)
Faiellines: Jerod, Cambina, Marius, Merlin
Wild Cards: Everyone Else.

Has anyone but me ever actually used the word 'Clarissi' though? I'm not even sure I've used it in character. I thought everyone else referred to us as 'The Redheads.'

(And really-- I should let y'all read Brennan's diary, some time....)

Karen
Jul 24, 2003 12:33 PM

Martin, Lucas, Reid, Folly -- yeah, that seems like a reasonable group of Wild Cards to me.... :)

Oooh, now I wanna map everyone to playing cards. Lucas, of course, would be a one-eared-Jack. I know which one I think Folly is, too.

(And I'm all for reading Brennan's diary.)

Novak
Jul 24, 2003 7:12 PM

Well, the Elders were all mapped to Trumps, so why not?

Leslie
Jul 24, 2003 8:14 PM

Oo! Oo! Can Robin be the Jack of Clubs? ;)

I mean some are obvious -- Queen of Diamonds = Paige / Queen of Hearts = Folly / Queen of Spades = Lilly... for the Queen of Clubs, I'm torn between Solange and Brita, though leaning toward Solange. :)

Karen
Jul 25, 2003 10:30 AM

I think Robin would make a fiiiiine Jack of Clubs. :)

But personally, I think Folly's ability to switch at will between High and Low pegs her as an Ace. Hearts, though, definitely.

I think Bleys should be the Queen of Hearts. (Or, wait, maybe I mean queen *at* heart....) ;p

Ginger
Jul 25, 2003 10:41 AM

Just so you guys know, the GMs are highly amused by the entire course of this discussion. Oh, and Karen, don't mistake our Bleys for Naughtie's ...

Karen
Jul 25, 2003 12:32 PM

Actually, Ginger, it's your *fabulous* Tim Curry Bleys that did it for me. (I'm convinced he's wearing fishnets under his trousers. When he's not poncing about in tights, that is....)

And anyway, even his name suggests a certain amount of, y'know, *flaming*.... ;)

Plus, his mum is Joan Crawford.

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