In hopes of providing entertainment between story posts, I’ve decided to make Wednesday “Extras Day.” (I know my first extras post was on a Thursday… shhhh… ;) I asked a few friends what they might like to see, and I got some really helpful suggestions, including the topic for today’s post.
I’ve put a lot of love and effort into making the world of Adan as real a place as I possibly can so that the characters have a rich setting in which to roam free. A lot of the things I’ve hammered out exist in the form of notes for my own reference which I can go back to periodically to make sure elements that show up in the story are consistent with each other. Unfortunately, it’s highly doubtful that Yuri (and therefor the narrative) will ever have any reason to learn most of these things. However, given the nature of this site, I can share some of it with you guys. None of this is necessary to understanding the story (hopefully; if it is, it will theoretically appear in the story itself), but it might be interesting to know or discuss.
One of the things that I’ve given a lot of thought to is names in Adani culture. A person’s name can give a lot of clues about their family and where they come from. For example: Ro sa’Surlan and Len sa’Vienne. Both of these names reflect a very common naming convention which has its roots in Adani’s pre-Illustran feudal period: their surnames denote where they were born. The prefix “sa” would roughly translate to “from” or “of,” and it tells anyone introduced to them that Ro and Len are from the provinces of Surlan and Vienne respectively. In some cases, depending on the area, the surname may reflect a province, a town, or a local district. Most people also have names that we would associate with family names, and these often (but not always) make use of the prefixes “din” and “dor” (son [of] and daughter [of]). However, unless your family lineage has a direct impact on dealings with the person you are introducing yourself to, those are often just omitted.
Related to this is the name “san’Illustra.” Taken literally, it simply means “of/from Illustra,” the “san” being a form of the “sa” prefix. However, Illustra is not a place, but rather a deity. In this case, it is a name which is taken by those who devote their lives to Her service, and replaces any family name or surname the person might have had before to show that the Church is the only affiliation that matters.
In all of this, Mercutio Kellaras and Olivia Delegarde are somewhat special cases. The lack of the “sa(n)” prefix indicates that both of these individuals are from noble houses. Often, family lines were elevated to nobility by a ruler based on valorous acts in service of the kingdom. The person who performed the act would become the proginitor of the new house, and the house would carry their name. Therefore, at some point in the past, one of Mer’s ancestors performed a service for a ruler and was dubbed Kellaras Kellaras. With the full unification of Adan under the Illustran theocracy, it is relatively rare to see new noble houses formed.
Anyway, I hope that this was at least a moderately interesting post. If there are any questions, comments, or suggestions for future Extras Days, please feel free to comment!
Site Administration | S. Gates | 
April 30, 2009 1:33 PM | 
Comments (0) 
Subscribe
Loading ...