Banestorm Question: Thysdretum?

[Michael Cule]

Do any of the people involved in the creation of Yrth know why there's a town called Thysdretum near Mehan in Megalos?

Were the letters to make it drawn out of a Scrabble bag?

I don't recognise it as coming from any real world language or location and my players keep stumbling over the name as they pass through.

(It's currently 1104 and they've just rescued a dozen people from the Mages' Triumvirate and discovered which of the three wizards was driving the war with the Bishop of Mehan. To their shock it wasn't the Necromancer.)

[Jerander]

Originally Posted by Michael Cule

Do any of the people involved in the creation of Yrth know why there's a town called Thysdretum near Mehan in Megalos?

Were the letters to make it drawn out of a Scrabble bag?

I don't recognise it as coming from any real world language or location and my players keep stumbling over the name as they pass through.

"Real world language or location?" Maybe it's a Goblin word. Or an Elvish. Or...

[ericthered]

"Thighs-dread-um"

Of course, locals will have their own little nicknames, so you can come up with an alias.

No. I know nothing about why it was named that nor am I any sort of authority. Just proposing solutions.

[malloyd]

Well Thysdrus is the classical city now called El Jem, Tunis. This looks like it could be some declination of that.

[Not another shrubbery]

Originally Posted by malloyd

Well Thysdrus is the classical city now called El Jem, Tunis. This looks like it could be some declination of that.

That looks like a reasonable guess, especially considering the proximity of that RW city to Hadrumetum. The Megalan name looks like a conflation of those two.

[Figleaf23]

And Thysdrus was near a larger place called 'Hadrumetum' ...

[Anaraxes]

What's the Latin word for "mashup"?

[malloyd]

Originally Posted by Anaraxes

What's the Latin word for "mashup"?

It's Greek, but you know "acronym" might work fine here. Despite the seeming meaning stretch, acro- is used for other word puzzles, most notably in "acrostic"

[Michael Cule]

Thank you! I'll go with the classical mashup theory until any actual evidence turns up.