Help me with a name for a Prussian necromancer

[Captain-Captain]

Dowid Von Rauthaug

[Dalillama]

Originally Posted by Captain-Captain

Dowid Von Rauthaug

If there is a significance here, I am missing it.

[ericthered]

Originally Posted by Anders

Here's a list of old Prussian names (Prussians had their own language, now extinct.)

http://www.behindthename.com/submit/...-east-prussian

Please note there are two entirely different branches of language referred to as Prussian. One is a dialect of german (high and low prussian). The other is a 'West Baltic' Language distantly related to lithuanian and slavic tounges.

The character Bio would suggest a german type prussian name.

[jason taylor]

Originally Posted by Dalillama

I am leaning towards Markgraf Aldric Von Todfeld (Which name, according to a combination of Behind the Name and Google Translate, means Ancient Ruler of the Field of Death). Markgraf is just a cool title. Having him be Odin is thematically inappropriate; plus, he's an even bigger jerk than Odin's usually written as.

Perhaps. But a Prussianized version of Lord of the Slain sounds kind of cool.

[Kitsune]

Originally Posted by Anders

Here's a list of old Prussian names (Prussians had their own language, now extinct.)

http://www.behindthename.com/submit/...-east-prussian

Of course Old Prussians ("Pruzzen") aren't Prussians. The name of the country may derive from an older baltic people, but Prussians were Germans - in a similiar manner as the inhabitants of Arkansas are not the Native Americans after which the state is named.

Wether the name "Aldric Von Todfeld" sounds cool...well, coolness may lie in the eye of the beholder (or something), but I have to say for a German it does not sound very much so. "Aldric" is not a very German sounding name, and "Todfeld" sounds very much like a two-dimensional Nazi villain in a penny dreadful, written by an Indiana Jones inspired author. Besides: would an evil English necromancer necessarily be named "Deathfield"?

As far as Prussian family names are concerned, here is a list: https://de.wikipedia.org/w/index.php...ht%29#mw-pages. The term "Adelsgeschlecht" dennotes noble families - just pick one that sounds to your liking. Please note the often appearing "ow" ending, it is pronounced similarly (well, kind of) to the way one would in English.

One family is actually called "von Salomon". They are not necessarily descended from the Salomon (who was allegedly a great white magician), instead, the family name derives purportedly from the old Venetian patrician family Salamon.

As far is titles are concerned here https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_and_noble_ranks is another link (scroll down a bit). To wield a good dead of influence should not be too difficult for someone capable of sorcery (assuming that sorcery is rare), so "Freiherr" or "Baron" could be enough. "Markgraf" is also, ehem, cool, but it is already pretty high up the ladder. Of course, to engineer the Franco-Prussian War, your noble necromancer would have needed more leverage in France than in Prussia. :P

[Dalillama]

Originally Posted by Kitsune

Wether the name "Aldric Von Todfeld" sounds cool...well, coolness may lie in the eye of the beholder (or something), but I have to say for a German it does not sound very much so.

Thank you, that's the kind of advice I was hoping for.

"Aldric" is not a very German sounding name,

I picked it off a list of German names from the internet, the sources of which I wouldn't care to guess at. Several sites noted it as a Scandinavian name as well, which may be more accurate.

and "Todfeld" sounds very much like a two-dimensional Nazi villain in a penny dreadful, written by an Indiana Jones inspired author.

Bingo! :) He's an Enemy for one of the PCs, and I'm still fleshing him out, but my current conception of him involves a devotion to the concept of aristocracy, 'good blood', and sneering ethnic bigotry, so he'll certainly fit in well with the Nazis if no one manages to kill him in the next five or six decades. (Campaign date is late 1871)

Besides: would an evil English necromancer necessarily be named "Deathfield"?

Possibly not, but that's also the sort of title you could earn by, say, winning a big battle and killing a whole bunch of enemies. Also I was having trouble coming up with anything less melodramatic.

As far as Prussian family names are concerned, here is a list: https://de.wikipedia.org/w/index.php...ht%29#mw-pages. The term "Adelsgeschlecht" dennotes noble families - just pick one that sounds to your liking. Please note the often appearing "ow" ending, it is pronounced similarly (well, kind of) to the way one would in English.

One family is actually called "von Salomon". They are not necessarily descended from the Salomon (who was allegedly a great white magician), instead, the family name derives purportedly from the old Venetian patrician family Salamon.

As far is titles are concerned here https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_and_noble_ranks is another link (scroll down a bit). To wield a good dead of influence should not be too difficult for someone capable of sorcery (assuming that sorcery is rare), so "Freiherr" or "Baron" could be enough. "Markgraf" is also, ehem, cool, but it is already pretty high up the ladder.

It has been pointed out to me elsewhere that there really weren't any legitimate Markgrafs in Prussia at this time, so Freiherr will have to do.

Of course, to engineer the Franco-Prussian War, your noble necromancer would have needed more leverage in France than in Prussia. :P

According to Wikipedia (My only source so far, since I wasn't expecting the Franco-Prussian war to have any significance in this game), a proximate cause of the war was that Bismarck altered correspondence between William I and the French Government to make it look like William was treating the French ambassador badly, thus provoking the French into declaring a war that Bismarck wanted. I figured that the evil Freiherr was either directly or indirectly responsible for that.

Originally Posted by ericthered

Please note there are two entirely different branches of language referred to as Prussian. One is a dialect of german (high and low prussian). The other is a 'West Baltic' Language distantly related to lithuanian and slavic tounges.

The character Bio would suggest a german type prussian name.

Indeed, I am supposing that he first entered Prussia as a member of the Teutonic Knights in the 13th century.

[Kitsune]

Originally Posted by Dalillama

Bingo! :) He's an Enemy for one of the PCs, and I'm still fleshing him out, but my current conception of him involves a devotion to the concept of aristocracy, 'good blood', and sneering ethnic bigotry, so he'll certainly fit in well with the Nazis if no one manages to kill him in the next five or six decades. (Campaign date is late 1871)

As a German, I am not very amused by such stereotypes always being used for Prussians. However, I will for now refrain from sending some goons over to have you beaten up.

Originally Posted by Dalillama

According to Wikipedia (My only source so far, since I wasn't expecting the Franco-Prussian war to have any significance in this game), a proximate cause of the war was that Bismarck altered correspondence between William I and the French Government to make it look like William was treating the French ambassador badly, thus provoking the French into declaring a war that Bismarck wanted. I figured that the evil Freiherr was either directly or indirectly responsible for that.

What happens in your game world is your thing, of course. But actually, the Franco-Prussian War came about when the French government tried to start a war to divert attention from interior French problems, and to help Napoleon III. to win a bit of glory. (Thanks to Victor Hugo, the French had began to ridicule their Emperor as "Napoleon le Petit"). When the Spanish chose as succession for their late King a member of a catholic branch of the House of Hohenzollern, the French government threatened with war if a Prussian would become King of Spain. Bismarck (then Prime Minister of Prussia) advised the Prussian King not to give in, but Wilhelm I. called the succession off (after initially having supported it for some days).

The French government (who had hoped for war) reacted first with celebrating this as an diplomatic victory, then by coming up with another set of demands, according to which the Hohenzollern family should give up future claims for the Spanish throne as well, and further demanded that Wilhelm I. should apologize for the time in which he had supported the respective succession. Wilhelm was indignated, rejected this, and left it to Bismarck to inform the public, which the prime minister did in form of the notorious Ems Dispatch. (Link: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ems_Dispatch)

This was a brisk (but largely appropriate, given French behaviour) rejection of the French demands. Paris had the Dispatch translated into French, boosting ist contents from brisk to offensive in the process, and then used this alleged offense as a pretext to declare war on Prussia. The story about poor, hapless France being tricked and provoked by evil Bismarck has later been used by French, British and American historians alike to exonerate the French and to pin the blame for the war on the Prussians.

[Hans Rancke-Madsen]

Originally Posted by Kitsune

The story about poor, hapless France being tricked and provoked by evil Bismarck has later been used by French, British and American historians alike to exonerate the French and to pin the blame for the war on the Prussians.

And it makes sense that historians should behave like that, because what our great great great great grandparents did reflects directly on us personally, to our glory or shame as the case may be.


Hans

[Kitsune]

Originally Posted by Hans Rancke-Madsen

And it makes sense that historians should behave like that, because what our great great great great grandparents did reflects directly on us personally, to our glory or shame as the case may be.

While you seem to mean this ironically, I actually think that this is true, at least up to a point. In any case, the historians in question were living as early as a hundred years ago, and there were rather concrete reasons for depicting the matter as they did.

Generally, there was a strong interest for either France, Britain or America to vilifiy Germany since 1914, be it to either justify the wars against it, or its subsequent harsh treatment after each Allied victory. To that end, the Germans were not only depicted as being solely responsible for WWII, under Hitler, but also for WWI, under Wilhelm II., and, come to think of it, for the Franco-Prussian War, under Bismarck. If one really analyzes the situation then it's always the same story: evil Prussian militarism was the reason for all these wars, and that is why Germany cannot be trusted, why it should be divided up, and must always be thoroughly subdued. That is also why Prussia, as the alleged root of all evil, should be wiped off the map for good, as the Allies did in 1947.

More specifically, there was the matter of the French claim to Alsace-Lorraine. According to France, this region is French, period, full stop, the end. It was stolen by the evil Germans and had to be returned, no doubts, no questions, no referendum. This view did not coincide so well with the idea that France had been solely responsible for the Franco-Prussian War, in which Alsace-Lorraine was lost. But if Bismarck and his evil Prussians are to be blamed for that war, then France becomes a victim of trickery and aggression, and voila!, the matter is clear and the claim is just.

[Dalillama]

Originally Posted by Kitsune

As a German, I am not very amused by such stereotypes always being used for Prussians. However, I will for now refrain from sending some goons over to have you beaten up.

My apologies. In my defence, the description I gave is basically 'scheming, evil aristocrat, type A', and all that really changes by region is the direction of the ethnic bigotry.

What happens in your game world is your thing, of course. But actually, the Franco-Prussian War came about when the French government tried to start a war to divert attention from interior French problems, and to help Napoleon III. to win a bit of glory. (Thanks to Victor Hugo, the French had began to ridicule their Emperor as "Napoleon le Petit"). When the Spanish chose as succession for their late King a member of a catholic branch of the House of Hohenzollern, the French government threatened with war if a Prussian would become King of Spain. Bismarck (then Prime Minister of Prussia) advised the Prussian King not to give in, but Wilhelm I. called the succession off (after initially having supported it for some days).

The French government (who had hoped for war) reacted first with celebrating this as an diplomatic victory, then by coming up with another set of demands, according to which the Hohenzollern family should give up future claims for the Spanish throne as well, and further demanded that Wilhelm I. should apologize for the time in which he had supported the respective succession. Wilhelm was indignated, rejected this, and left it to Bismarck to inform the public, which the prime minister did in form of the notorious Ems Dispatch. (Link: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ems_Dispatch)

This was a brisk (but largely appropriate, given French behaviour) rejection of the French demands. Paris had the Dispatch translated into French, boosting ist contents from brisk to offensive in the process, and then used this alleged offense as a pretext to declare war on Prussia. The story about poor, hapless France being tricked and provoked by evil Bismarck has later been used by French, British and American historians alike to exonerate the French and to pin the blame for the war on the Prussians.

It is entirely believable to me that both Bismarck (to provide a cause with which to unify the Germanies) and Napoleon III (to distract from his many domestic problems) wanted a war at that point, and Bismarck was simply clever and patient enough to wait for Napoleon to make the first move, without feeling a need to help it along. For the purposes of my game, it doesn't actually matter; he may have simply taken advantage of the war instead of causing it. He doesn't even need to be Prussian, technically; he only is because a foreign (to France) nobleman/sorceror killed the PCs mentor (who was a French aristocrat); since the Franco-Prussian war took place around then, Prussia was an obvious place to look for said foreigner.