Why the name???

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tuahaa
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Why the name???

Post by tuahaa »

Has it ever dawned on anyone that Wesnoth is very similar to West North, and in fact should be Nothwes, because 'West North' doesn't exist, but 'North West' does.

I am dissapoint.
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Re: Why the name???

Post by thespaceinvader »

Did you ever play tRoW? It's explained - and it's precisely the etymology you suggest.

Originally, however, it was just a cool name Dave thought up IIRC.
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Captain_Wrathbow
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Re: Why the name???

Post by Captain_Wrathbow »

Yes, the story is supposedly that since the people that settled wesnoth came from the west and north, they called it Westnorth and over time that evolved into Wesnoth, IIRC.
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Limabean
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Re: Why the name???

Post by Limabean »

Captain_Wrathbow wrote:Yes, the story is supposedly that since the people that settled wesnoth came from the west and north, they called it Westnorth and over time that evolved into Wesnoth, IIRC.
I've never bought this explenaton. According to the above statement (and tRoW) settlers from the Green Isle travelled southeast in order to reach Wesnoth, so why would they name their new home after the direction that they would have to travel to return to the Green Isle? Seems kind of pessimistic if you think about it. :P
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Captain_Wrathbow
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Re: Why the name???

Post by Captain_Wrathbow »

Captain_Wrathbow wrote:Yes, the story is supposedly
Yes, I agree that it is corny. Like TSI said, the name was just a random combination of syllables that Dave liked. Th etymology developed after the word. :P
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Zachron
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Re: Why the name???

Post by Zachron »

Try thinking of it like this: They did not name the kingdom after the place they settled. They named it for the people who settled there. Instead of thinking of the Green Isle as one culture, think of it as an Island of a few different cultures, as well as a host to a few non-native cultures. Now picture a lot of these refugees being forced into a few hold-outs, who have little choice other than to leave on the first ship that can take them. A lot of people who were able to live separate lives in their cities or on their farms, now live very tight knit lives on their ships. Old conflicts get set aside by the extraordinary circumstances, and new conflicts are ignited by fundamental changes in available resources and who has them. Picture some groups who lived more inland would face more fracturing to their cultures than groups who already lived in ports,(I.e. larger portions of port dwellers got out alive) so the majority of the survivors find their cultures decimated... Now people often prefer to identify themselves with their ancestry instead of their current habitat. (We American's are flukes in this regard)

So picture yourself, if you may, as a Generation 0 West-North-ian. You live in a small village, not far from the place which will one day be Weldyn. (Perhaps some of the folk are already calling the land, or at least the particular region, "Weldia" at the time.) Now you were born in the inland reaches of the Green Isle, and you only escaped with the first wave because your joined up when Haldric's army came through your valley on the way to Clearwater. Now aside from those of your valley who joined forces or followed along with Haldric's march, very few of your tribe survived to escape in the second wave, in fact, you are the sole survivor of your clan. Your wife was a Wesfolk by birth, and she served as a scout in Haldrics forces. She saved your life in the Battle of Clearwater, and you saved hers on the Drake's isle. All of her family who were not killed when the orcs first came, laid down their lives on one occasion or another while in the service of Haldric's forces. Between the two of, you have a pretty nice chunk of land, too large for you to farm it all yourself. Instead of getting servants, you allow other land owners to share-crop on it. Your next door neighbors came from Clearwater Port, and the people across the lane from your house came from Southbay. Countless members of the small community you're in came from all corners and lineages of the Green Ilse, in fact very few of them, even the married couples, come from the same place, and all of them have little stories behind them... but when sharing your stories, will you emphasize the differences between the groups you came from, or would you emphasize the common ground, the common places, the common struggle you all shared, especially when sharing these stories with children, who descend from all of these places? Much of your new village is alien, yet at the same time it is so familiar. Even if you love diversity and novelty, you will find and cherish similarities and familiarities, and your culture's collective recollection of its past will focus upon your common origins rather than your diverse origins, when forging the future you will all share...

...or you can say a talking squirrel whispered the name into Haldric's ear, it's all the same to me.
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ancestral
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Re: Why the name???

Post by ancestral »

When you're talking about a large continent inhabited by many cultures in tumultuous, changing times, the continent probably had many names across different languages. The Saurians, for example, may have used a different word for defining Wesnoth — such as “land” or “sacred” or “sanctuary.”

It's also very possible that the continent could have been renamed sometime in a future era, even for promotional or propaganda reasons (though on a much smaller scale perhaps like St. Petersburg → Leningrad, and back again).
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Iris
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Re: Why the name???

Post by Iris »

ancestral wrote:[...] continent [...] continent [...]
And remember that Wesnoth is the country, and the continent is the Great Continent.
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Captain_Wrathbow
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Re: Why the name???

Post by Captain_Wrathbow »

shadowmaster wrote:And remember that Wesnoth is the country, and the continent is the Great Continent.
And Irdya is the planet. Although I'm not even sure if that is ever mentioned in mainline... maybe in UtBS, I can't remember?
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Re: Why the name???

Post by Blarumyrran »

Captain_Wrathbow wrote:
shadowmaster wrote:And remember that Wesnoth is the country, and the continent is the Great Continent.
And Irdya is the planet. Although I'm not even sure if that is ever mentioned in mainline... maybe in UtBS, I can't remember?
If you have any sense of human dignity, you won't use that name.
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Re: Why the name???

Post by Iris »

Captain_Wrathbow wrote:And Irdya is the planet. Although I'm not even sure if that is ever mentioned in mainline... maybe in UtBS, I can't remember?
Mentioned in a MP scenario description, Legend of Wesmere and Delfadors' Memoirs. It's not supposed to be general knowledge, really.
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