Let's talk a little nerd for now. I am an avid World of Warcraft player and I have been for quite a few years. One of my first types of MMORPG (Massively Multi-player Online Role Playing Game) games that I played was Final Fantasy XI. I loved that game for it's music, it's storytelling, and, oddly enough, the people I met on that game that I called my friends. Sadly, the game was taking a steady nosedive in popularity, so I swapped over to the evil cousin of sorts and made my new home there on the server Icecrown.
So what is this blog entry about anyways? Well, I have had several people ask me how I come up with the names for all my characters. Think of this: When you go make a new account or a new character or a new ANYTHING online, what is the biggest problem you have? That's right, coming up with a bitchin' name that hasn't been used yet. Unfortunately, several of the good names are already taken. You also have to consider inactive accounts as well. Since they haven't been deleted over the course of the ten years they have most likely been there, their names are still locked down for good. It really makes you wonder how you can make a good name to match your personality in all that you do. Well that's what your imagination is for, if you have one. Maybe this will help spark some brain juices.
In World of Warcraft, there are two factions constantly at war, the Alliance and the Horde. I have characters on both sides of the spectrum, but we will focus on one side at a time. First up is the ever lovable Mercodious (mer-KHO-dee-US). This is my main Horde character coming in at a level 90 male Undead Warlock. The main reason I chose this combination, other than the undead dance, is that it closely resembled the famous Summoner class from FFXI. I felt a little at home, per se, with this character. As for the name, it comes from an old, old project I was working on in a program called RPGMaker2003. I had an entire story written up for a game I wanted to design, and this was a great start to get my programming going. In the story, there was a castle named after the king of the land, Maverick Mercodious. However, his new chancellor, known as Meredith, was corrupted by an evil spirit of the underworld, known as Mitsumi. Meredith managed to corrupt the king and then report him to the autorities for practicing the dark arts of summoning armies of the undead. After the king was removed from power, Meredith was appointed the high seat on the council. It was at that point that she brought in her servent, General Rukifellth, to lead the army of the kingdom in search of a powerful artifact that would permanently seal Mitsumi into the body of Meredith so that her power would overtake the entire world. Interesting stuff, huh? I would love to continue working on this game, but sadly there is not enough time in the day to manage it.
Moving right along, we have Bravendeft (BRAH-ven-DEFT), my level 90 male Tauren Death Knight, transmogged into all gold armor. The namesake also comes from the game I was writing on the side, which happened to be named Bravendeft. It is the name of one of the main characters that you would play inside the game. You start out in your home village doing some pretty normal activities to get you familiar with the game and how some stuff works. After a while, you get tired and want to take a nap. During your sleep, you have a very vivid dream where you actually take control of three separate adventurers named Aldaris, Korvin, and Jeffery. You show up in some heavily wooded area trying to escape the coming army. Eventually, a spirit helps guide your way to an ominous looking tree in the very middle. Unfortunately, this is also a dead end. As you reach the tree, Aldaris throws something into the trunk to hide it from the mysterious shadow coming up to him. That shadow happened to be the new General of the armies, and he brought the body of Korvin with him. After a little role play, the General moves in to slay Aldaris, but at the last second before the blade strikes, you see a flash of white light, and wake up in your bed to the sound of a thunderstorm. Almost makes you want to play the game now, right? I will eventually get back to working on it, but for now, let's move on to the next character.
Coming up on the list is my male Orc Warrior. Although he is not level 90 at this time, I plan on it in the future. His name is Funkapotamus (FUNK-uh-POT-ah-MUS). Ever play any of the ToeJam and Earl games? Well, here is where the name comes from. He is an orc with a mohawk and he dances just like MC Hammer. Why would I name him anything else? The Funkapotamus, named Lamon (luh-MON), sends ToeJam, Earl, and Latisha on a mission to earth to save the power of Funk and to collect his funk albums from the being known as the Anti-Funk. Basically, it's funk vs country in this hilarious game. It's worth checking out if you want something that is fun to play and quite funky with the puns. Also, if you dislike country music, this game is a must play.
Here we have my level 90 male Blood Elf Priest, Taisaijin (TIE-sigh-JIN). This name came from a notorious monster in the game FFXI. Although it loosely translates to "grand festival god," I was trying to look for something somewhat evil sounding. The reasoning behind that is because this is a shadow spec priest. He has a dark wardrobe and a soul patch on his chin, which basically means "Satan" in some ways here and there. Other than that, nothing too special or outstanding about him.
Along with him we have the counterpart, a female Blood Elf Paladin named Leama (LEE-muh). To be honest there is nothing notable about this character other than the fact that it is a placeholder for a project I wanted to work on. The name comes from a remixed version of a song courtesy of the artist Paul Oakenfold. It is called "Requiem for a Dream (Leama's Dream Mix)" if you wanted to listen to it.
Next on the list we have my male Troll Druid named Tresduendes (Tres-DWEN-deyz). This is another name that comes from a notorious monster in FFXI, Tres Duendes. This was a bat trio that would change between three different fighting formations during the fight. To further break it down, "tres" is the Spanish word for the number three, and "duende" references a Spanish concept which refers to a creative force of energy which comes from within, fueling the drive to produce a work of art into any form. It can also be considered a force of spontaneous creativity. In the more earlier days of latin, it also referenced the spirits of art that live within. These spirits usually take the forms of more common animals that display similar characteristics to one's own personality.With the Troll being a druid, he constantly shape shifts during fights to suit his needs. I thought it was rather creative to name this character in this manner.
Taking up the rear of the Horde list, and with good reasoning, is my male Goblin Rogue, Slickmcnifty (Slick McNifty). He was formerly known as the Night Elf Rogue Einlanzer (EIN-lan-ZER), which happened to be the counterpart to the evil sword known as the Masamune from the game Crono Cross. Although it had no real significance to a rogue, I liked the name. Slickmcnifty, however, was "borrowed" from someone on FFXI. I was walking through Jeuno one day and noticed this alt standing at the auction house. He happened to have this name and I thought it was hilarious. It makes even more sense on a Goblin rogue, too!
Now that the Horde list is done, it is time for the Alliance list. This list has a few extra stories behind it, but they are pretty interesting and random. Then again, so was the Horde list. Let's get started, shall we?
First up on Alliance is my level 90 female Draenei Shaman, Tsumikiri (SUE-me-KEER-ree). The very first online game I ever got involved with was Phantasy Star Online for the original XBox. In fact, I still have the game disc and all of my saved game data. The great thing about the game, and also the not so great thing about the game, is that you can make your character have any name, regardless of whether or not it's taken, and you can make your character look identical to anyone else's. With this being said, it was amazing seeing how many Sephiroths there were sitting around in the lobby. Each rendition of them had the same weapon, the Tsumikiri J-Sword. It was a very long kitana type blade that closely resembled the actual blade used by Sephiroth in the game Final Fantasy VII. Although my shaman is named after a sword, I still think to this day that it was a pretty awesome name for a sword. Besides, it's kind of fun to say.
Right behind her is my level 90 female Pandaren Mage, named Kearly (KEER-lee). This name is actually spelled wrong based of the origin. It should be spelled Kearley, but I was already level 20 when I finally noticed. I shrugged it off since it was more of an original being spelled wrong instead of another copy. The name comes from yet another remixed song. This time it is courtesy of the artist CellDweller. Although I forgot the exact name of the song, I will come back and put that information in at a later date.
Following the mage we have my male Pandaren Monk, obviously named Boraicho (Bo-RYE-cho). The name is properly shown as Bo Rai'Cho from where it comes from. This is the name of quite the historical character. In the Mortal Kombat series, the lore states that Bo Rai'Cho was the teacher for Liu Kang. He taught him everything he needed to know to defeat Shang Tsung at the end of the first movie. Another fun fact about Bo Rai'Cho is that it was Mortal Kombat's first obese fighting character. He first made his appearance in the game Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance. To supplement further on the fun fact list, his name is a play off the word "borracho," which is Spanish for "drunk."
Finally, at the very end of the list is my male Worgen Hunter, confusingly named Tsvirkunov. (TSVEER-koo-NAHV). Although the Worgens have a Brittish accent, this name is more of a Russian persuasion. So, with that in mind, why the hell did I name him this? Well I play a lot of SimCity... One of the buildings in the high tech industrial zone is a blue and white building called "Tsvirkunov Electronics." I just always thought it was a cool name, so I used it. Nothing more, nothing less.
So, with all of this being said and done, this can possibly be considered my little catalogue of character names that I use for World of Warcraft. Although some names can be found on almost every server, there are a few that I have where I am the only player in the world with the name. It does wonders for originality and imagination! Besides, some of the names you see out there are rather embarrassing. For example, people who have to purposely spell something wrong just to get the name they originally wanted, a name that someone else already had. Then you get the names that sound like XBox Live gamer tag. Those basically brand you as an asshole or a jerk or even just a small kid. I tend to ignore most of these people as they are highly annoying. Finally, you have the ghetto names. Why are they called these? Well, if you go to a ghetto and ask someone their name, that's your answer.
Every name has it's own meaning to different people. To some, a simple name means much more than just Jack or Sam. A name represents the imagination that you put into it. A name is something you give something or someone you love. Whether or not it's real or fictional, everyone will know you by name first, good or bad. The best thing you can do with a name is to not make a bad image of yourself wherever you go. Sure, you can change your name in a game quite easily, but in real life there is a lot more paperwork and money involved. Either way you look at it, changing your name doesn't make you any less of an asshole, but changing your attitude does.
Be good, don't troll, and pull your damn pants up.
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Summary List - All characters are on Icecrown
Horde - Mercodious, Bravendeft, Funkapotamus, Taisaijin, Leama, Tresduendes, Slickmcnifty
Alliance - Tsumikiri, Kearly, Boraicho, Tsvirknov
