Guild Names - quick question

[Vault Dweller]

Want to run something by you guys. I have several factions and guilds, including a thieves guild and an assassin order. Anyway, I wanted to go with more authentic / interesting names for those. Since the influence is roman / persian, The Hashashins and the Old Man of the Mountains, and the Forty Thieves - the ancient criminal group seem like good choices.

So what do you think of that? Would you prefer to have the good ol' fashioned Assassins or ancient but semi-forgotten Hashashins? Generic Thieves Guild or The Forty Thieves?

 

[Volourn]

The good names ala The Hashashins and the Old Man of the Mountains, and the Forty Thieves.

 

[Greatatlantic]

Well if there is a Roman influence you could try Romnesque names. For example, end words -us or -i. Such as Montus Antiquus, "old montain".

Here's a link to a Latin dictionary where you might get some inspiration.

http://www.nd.edu/~archives/latgramm.htm

As for Persian, can't really help you there, I think there language has never been translated, but don't quote me on that.

 

[Saran]

Definetly go for the more interesting names, there have been more than enough games with generic names for the various factions like the fighters guild or the thieves guild, how many groups name themselves after what they do?

The Shadow thieves from BG, yea maybe "Thieving bastards anonymous" would have done the trick, but it doesnt lend the group a sense of history or mystery that you get from the Shadow Thieves, so it would be great to have proper names for the various factions, it would make the world more interesting, if you have the time you could even give each faction a history that explains how they earned that name which would drastically improve the feeling of RPing in a fully fleshed out and living world.

 

[Sol Invictus]

Go with the more interesting names. You don't have to follow real world names if the game isn't in the real world, though. You could always find a Latin translation for something like "The Silent Order of the Snake and Blade".

 

[Vault Dweller]

Thanks for the opinions and the link. That would be handy. As for the histories, they are written and integrated into the gameplay. Since the gameplay revolves around past events, histories, true and false, and the reasons for existing are important.

 

[Fez]

Non-generic, please. It gives a better story flavor and character, much more interesting than the bland terms.

 

[Selenti]

Please don't over-use latin. Despite being a pretty cool language, it just sounds a bit odd and off-key to use it instead of the (pretty awesome) english names you already have.

 

[Greatatlantic]

I wasn't suggesting pure Latin, persay, but maybe a combination of the two. For example, you might have a guild of truckers. There Eng-latin name would be Maximus Truci, or biggest of the trucks. Get what I'm saying?

 

[Mefi]

Not wishing to troll, but if you spell 'per se' as 'persay' then it might not be a good idea for you to suggest Latin names :D

The main problem with Latin is that you can end up looking like a half-wit incompetent because you can't conjugate the verbs properly. Unless of course, you have a society where cod-Latin is used as some debased form of an older language...

Stick to 'English' names. Just think through the history of the guild. how did it start? when did it get its name? why was it called that? Follow the basic rules for story telling and you should be fine. If the influence is Roman/Persian, figure out why organisations existed..

for real secret agents in Rome/Byzantium check out : Speculatores, Frumentarii, Agentes in Rebus and Arcani. Some of these weren't set up as a secret service but evolved into it because their roles within society lent themselves to having a secret function. Once their value had been shown then they were formally instituted as secret services by later emperors.

 

[Human Shield]

Unique names are good but I would include a symbol with them that matches the symbols for the classes, so have a dagger sign show up next to the name to show that it is an assassin or theif guild etc...

 

[Saint_Proverbius]

I agree. I wouldn't use Latin either. After all, everything is going to be in English anyway, right? Why bother with Latin for guild names when every Roman Tom, Dick, and Harry is speaking English anyway?

 

[Vault Dweller]

every Roman Tom, Dick, and Harry is speaking English anyway?

They don't know it. They think that they speak perfect Latin

Anyway, about them names, I will use latin only occasionally, 80% of stuff is plain English. If someone addresses you in Latin, there would be an option to say: " English, motherfucker! Do you speak it?!"

Anyway x2, how do these names sound?

Assassins - Death Merchants. In the setting, assassin is a respectable trade. Death is a commodity to be traded like anything else.

Merchants - The Commercium. Commercium used to mean the right to trade. This fine organization enforces that rule, granting and revoking the right to trade, and setting up tariffs and embargos.

Any comments?

 

[Major_Blackhart]

how about "The Black Guard", or "The Brigade" or even stuff like "The Bloody Swords" guild or maybe just something over the top.

 

[Spazmo]

Commercium sounds neat, but Death Merchants is a bit flat. It'd be like Best Buy rebranding itself "Electronics Store". Death merchants would be good for a euphemism or a common calling of the profession at large (e.g., "If you want someone... dealt with, talk to the death merchants down at the blah guild"), but the actual guild would need something snappier and more distinctive.

 

[Vault Dweller]

Good point. How about The Spinning Blade? The Night Blades? The Poisoned Dagger? The Last Resolve? The Order of The Blade? The Deathhounds? The Boatmen of Styx?

 

[Greatatlantic]

How about the DORIAN-KA, hmmmm, I fear it might be taken, however. Molochean hand? No, same issue... Ah, Hand of Plutus Regis. Go with that and never look back!

 

[Spazmo]

Boatmen of the Styx is neat (I dare you to have a subset of the guild called Blue Collar Men and at least one important person in there named Lorelai). It works in that Greek/Roman mythology angle. You could even give the big cheese in the guild the title Charon or something along those lines.

It's actually too bad that assassins are just another business in your setting. It'd be neat to have a clandestine organisation known by a dozen different sobriquets but that doesn't actually have a real name.

 

[Fez]

Deaths 'R Us (Now with two for one special!). The Dark/Black Shepherds. Death's Shepherds.

 

[Vault Dweller]

@ Spazmo: I like the "boatmen" too. The Charon title/rank is a neat idea.
I like your idea about an organization with no name, too bad all the assassin stuff is already written, and that no name and secrecy thing would require a totally different angle.

@ Fez: Deaths 'R Us - lol, that's what my daughter suggested. I like the Shepherds thing.

 

[Diogo Ribeiro]

Assassins - Death Merchants. In the setting, assassin is a respectable trade. Death is a commodity to be traded like anything else.

Death Dealers. Murder Traffickers. Grave Traders. Or you could go pompous ass and name them Sellan Mortis, which would roughly translate as 'sellers of death', with 'sellan' being the old English equivalent of 'sell' and 'mortis' being the Latin equivalent of 'death' (IIRC).

Merchants - The Commercium. Commercium used to mean the right to trade. This fine organization enforces that rule, granting and revoking the right to trade, and setting up tariffs and embargos.

The Commercium sounds nice. I also like The Consortium. How about the Fellowship of the Bling?

 

[Vault Dweller]

How about the Fellowship of the Bling?

lol That's hilarious

 

[Fez]

Fellowship of the Bling - The song!

 

[Major_Blackhart]

Well, Murder Incorporated was the name of the Jewish Mob in NYC back in the 20's and 30's, Our House could be another one, and hell, even Mafia I think translates in arabic or some such language into "mountain men", meaning the resistance group that fought arabic invaders for years.

 

[Saran]

Hmmm, its going to very difficult to avoid cheesy names, i dont know if Death Dealers really fits into the setting, it sounds a bit too modern to really suit the era, back then a lot of the groups were based around religious beliefs or folk tales, so pompous is the way to go, well, that is if VD intends to keep the "Feel" of the era intact.

So names like i dunno, the League of independant traders for the merchants or something else that is grand and melodramatic would suit the setting fairly well, as far as assasins are concerned, well, most of the names you thought up yourself sound great VD, you could also name some of the smaller groups after the areas you find them in, such as the butchers of cercia. (cercia being a shitty name for a town i just made up a minute ago, it would hint at a past atrocity carried out when they betrayed some local lord or something like that, in many ways it would tell you all you need to know about how they came to be, if you were to call one faction "The Fallen Legion" for instance, your backstory could be something about a failed uprising in which the legion participated or perhaps after a bloody campaign in which they suffered so many casualties the unit was disbanded, forcing the now jobless survivors to turn to banditry to survive.)

So if you have any groups with a backstory similar to that you could consider naming them after an important event in the groups history.