Dog Latin needed!

[gridlore]

I'm doing some work on my campaign setting, and need actual names for the four major deities. They are, in no particular order

• Law. The ultimate expression of order. Father of the Dwarves. Known as the "Building Father." Symbols include stone pillars, perfect towers, masonry tools.


• Chaos. Wild, unformed, energy and motion. Mother of the Elves. Commonly known as the "Growing Mother." Symbols include circles, trees, and the eight-pointed arrow.


• Life. The deity of all living things and Good. Child of Law and Chaos. Known generally as the "Child of Light" or "Life-Bringer." Symbols include a perfect child, the sun, and skulls (in his role as the end of life), a young warrior with an unhealed wound.


• Unlife. Twin to Life. Lord of Evil and Destruction. Locked away by the other gods, he plots the end of all things. The perverter of nature, father of monsters. Known (in whispers) as the "Unspeakable Lord" or the "Foul Despoiler." Unlife's cultists tend to call him the "Coming Darkness." Symbols include a black circle, broken skulls, chains, and a black tower surrounded by flame.

There are other, minor deities, like the Elemental Lords and the Powers (drawn from the Incarnations of Immortality series by Piers Anthony) along with a plethora of demigods who serve as patrons of the various orders of the church and of cities and nations. You also have demonic lords who scheme to reign in the twisted planes of the Unspeakable Lord's influence, and to eventually supplant him. It's all based heavily on Medieval Catholicism, complete with schisms and heresies.

Doesn't have to be Latin. I'll take Greek or Esperanto. Just has to sound good and reflect the nature of the deity. Having a good German name for Law would be nice.

Yeah, I completely suck at languages.

Comments

[pengshui-master.livejournal.com]

For Law = Die Schmied .

Which is taken from "The Smith" in German, which seems to fit in with the way you are describing him.

Ok, admittedly I play in LARP with GOD called the Smith, although he has a different congregation.

[dalen-talas.livejournal.com]

Then it would be "Der Schmied", using the definite masculine article. Or, even better, "Der Schmidt".

Literal translation of "Building Father" would be "Der Bauvater" (with "building" as a noun) or "Der Bautvater" (with a verb).

Though how about "Ord", short for "Ordnung" - "order", "regulation"?

[gridlore.livejournal.com]

I like Ordnung. Sounds Dwarven and evocative of Odin.

[dalen-talas.livejournal.com]

This will need playing around, though.

[pengshui-master.livejournal.com]

I was pretty sure I had at least the gender pronouns wrong. Thats why I said "taken from" , rather "the german for...."

[gil-liant.livejournal.com]

Codifex, Fractasia, Lavator, and Penumbral. If you can't tell which is which then I obviously didn't do very good job. ^_^

Good luck with your campaign.

[gridlore.livejournal.com]

Nice! Not sure about Penumbral, may play with that one some.

[gridlore.livejournal.com]

What do you think of "Inimicitias" for Unlife?

[gil-liant.livejournal.com]

I'd correlate that more with Hatred than Unlife. I'm assuming you wish the names to reflect the underlying nature of the deity, not their relationship with mortals -- which would, more or less, be a secondary effect.

You could go with Phagos, though. The Devourer.

[suzilem.livejournal.com]

in Swedish, Chaos is Kaos
in Finnish, Kaaos

How's about some Hebrew and a little German?

[murphymom.livejournal.com]

That would make life Haim or leHaim (l'chayim) and death could be Todt (tote).

Re: How's about some Hebrew and a little German?

[gridlore.livejournal.com]

I think I'll go for the classic Thánatos for Death, who will be one of the Powers. Life/Good includes death as part of the natural cycle of things. I'll probably write him as a dying/resurrected deity around Midwinter. But Thánatos (and his minions) would serve as the traditional collectors and judges of souls.

[capplor.livejournal.com]

If you really do want Esperanto, the direct translations are "Leĝo" (pron: LEDGE-oh). Ĥaoso (the Ĥ is pron like the ch" in "loch ness" or "Chanukah"), which, in it's feminine form would be Ĥaosino (Khaw-ose-EEN-oh). Vivo (VEE-voe), & Malvivo or Morto: any of which can also be feminized by plugging a "-in-" before the final o.

Mal- is a nice handy-dandy prefix which means "opposite of" & can be plugged onto any word which you know the one side of, but not its contrary. "Malleĝo" thus means "not-law" (not "illegal", that's an adjective & a whole other lesson), & "malĥaoso" means "order, control." Malmorto is Esperanto for something which is "undead." (An undead person wants the -ul- suffix before the final o: Malmortulo)

I didn't give you too much there, did I?

This site can give you more and better malĥaose: http://vortaro.kisa.ca/

[capplor.livejournal.com]

An even better page for grammar, if you're so inclined: http://en.lernu.net/index.php

[claidheamhmor]

No suggestions, but I love the idea. Not a whole damn plethora of deities, just a few. Much simpler.

[gridlore.livejournal.com]

Like I said, based heavily on Medieval Catholicism with a big order of Marianism on the side. Under the umbrella of the church there will be numerous semi-divine agents/saints that are the focus of various orders. Paladins and most adventuring clerics, for example, would be members of the Order of St. Michael. I'll have to sit down with the Medieval calender of saints to build some good orders.

But yeah, one of my big complaints about FRPG settings has been the poor treatment of religion. It was a huge part of life historically, and these are worlds where the gods' powers are manifest on Earth.