Tuesday, April 01, 2008

MBT Professions-gluttony Query

Well MooseGuy was wanting to be a scourge-leer-pistoleer-strivener and I said I would come up with a name for such a person/profession. Well... I came up with everything but:
  • scourge-pistoleer = flagrant, orspirator/orspiratine
  • scourge-wit = severine
  • scourge-leer = staide, austerine
  • skold-leer = scryer, saltscry, saltstrait
  • skold-pistoleer = locksalt (though really, such a person is really a skold with a penchant for delivering potives from a firelock)
  • leer-pistoleer = scrylock, lockstrait, straitlock
  • wit-leer = looksooth, straitsooth

...and I could go on. Now, it must be said at any such combinations are not as common as you might think, especially as true pistoleers - like sagaars - see themselves as a set apart, with secret knowledge and dedication to a singular expertise in a single skill. Indeed, sagaars are even more rigourous about this; for them it is all about the purity of the Dance with out taints, cheats or augmentations . A person might gain some fundamental moves of the dance (akin to basic and more intermediate martial arts), but if you call yourself a sagaar it is because you have committed to a way off living, to a higher plan of existence. (sorry, giantfan)

As for Mr Guy-of-Moose's combination, well I was thinking, sir, you might want to have a go at coming up with your own name, for such a combination would be most probably unique to you and therefore have no common name in the Half-Continent. FYI - messing about with highly unstable and dangerous potives whilst wrestling with the instability of you mimeotes (foreign organs) you could expect to have a rather short life span, even without the ubiquitous threat of a terrible gashing end.

It is worth noting that these names might change over time and with further thinking and revision; just like most other things H-c, I am constantly reworking and adding and subtracting to ideas - especially as I get deeper and deeper into the world with each novel. It can be a tad disconcerting to discover in writing a story that something I thought pretty well thought out over many years of natural accretion plus solid hours of think-time proves to be just barely enough to start with, that I need to go much further into notions and inventions than I had ever anticipated.

It is a good problem to have, I reckon.

(Oh! I have realised it is April Fools today, but I cannot think of anything funny - though plenty that is foolish)

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

hey its giantfan again
bummer about my combo what about a sagaar who has some early training as a scold before they became a wit? eg i could cote my boots / gloves in a nasty potive for monsters? and some rudementry healing stuff lol cant for the life of me rember the name for healing potions and healing potions dosent sound right

Anonymous said...

just read me comment i mean before they became a sagaar
giantfan

MooseGuy said...

If I was the only one, I s'pose there would be no need for a title...

Thanks very much, anyway!

Anonymous said...

Hey DM, can I ask, how do you come up with all these various names? I mean, are they all based on latin or something, or did you just think them up by yourself? Sorry for being nosy, I simply like the names alot by themselves, they sound really cool. :)

LankySam

Anonymous said...

gday mate,

I suppose we can be thankful you didn't release some spoilers from book 3. Something like you intend Rossamund to die at the end.

I'll take no April fool over that.

Bomber

D.M. Cornish said...

Well, Mr Sam-of-Lanky, I use whatever source helps me get the best sounding word I can - Latin, Classical Greek, Biblical Greek, German, Dutch, Anglo Saxon, Old Norse, Hungarian, Polish, French, Spanish and my most favourite of all, a thesaurus.

Getting a word to sound just right is both very important to me and immensly fun, hence my willingness to do so upon request.

The problem Master Giantfan is that though your concept would be very powerful, it would also work against itself: for a true sagaar renounces all but the dance and if they were to, for example, in the midst of an awesome move, seek to "fish" (wit) something they would have to stop dancing - a very bad thing for a sagaar to do. For witting requires intense concentration to do successfully, not to mention all the potives you would have to continue to imbibe and the "night-pains" you would continue to suffer. I suppose you could say the wit was so superior in skill they could strive accurately and with enough force during the dance - this is ceratainly "possible". However, in the H-c the likelyhood of another sagaar or school of the same taking on a wit would be slim, and witting on its own is so powerful with practice I wonder why you would bother spreading yourself thinnly by diversifying. Am I a pain or what? Still - it is an intriguing idea.

As to your comments Mr Bomber hmm... interesting... kill of Rossamünd... hmm...

Anonymous said...

hey its giantfan
i saw that and fixed that i ment a sagaar / scold coting my boots with nasty concotions for the wee monsties

Drew said...

Hey DM!
Love the list of new professions!!
So many choices...
I could amend my choice to staide for sure.
BTW, the review-interview is up at SFRevu.com, for all who're interested.
best,
Drew

H said...

Hey DM,
I was reading and noticed your comments about names/words... you really can find some awesome ones if you dig can't you? Norse is a favourite of mine too. I was in the Manchester Central Library a couple of months ago and found a great Norse Dictionary, packed!
I took your advice and have tried to build a freelance portfolio website, but as I am yet to have anything published, it is merely a blog at the moment... I'll see how it all goes.

p.s. have ordered my copy of HBP and am awaitng its arrival... can't wait!