World of Bugcraft -and- new story : Shadows of the Apt

World of Bugcraft ‑and- new story

Firstly, there's a new story up, Counterspies by Adam Gauntlett, which you can find here.

Secondly, some of you may be aware of a dalliance entitled World of Warcraft (1). Well now, one feature of this global pastime is something called the armory, wherein you can look up all manner of things. And search the player database by character name. So, a little gander(2) displays the following

3 Tisamons (a priest and 2 paladins), 2 Stenwolds (priest and shaman), 2 Thalrics (warlock and paladin), 1 Cheerwell (rogue, weirdly enough), an assortment of 9 Tothos, 6 Tynisas (5 of whom are rogues), 7 Achaeoses, 7 Balkuses (3), 4 Scutos and a Sperra.

Now, lord knows I can't claim credit for some of these — names like Totho and Balkus are the sort of thing that people can happen upon quite happily by themselves (4) but even so… the wonder of it all…

(1) Alternatively, a highly contagious life-eating plague called World of Warcraft. Lord knows I'm still not over my case of it.

(2) is that right? Is "gander" look? Is this rhyming slang, and if so, what on earth is it rhyming with? Or is it dadaist rhyming slang: "Goose and gander — look"?

(3) You never think you'll need to work out what the plural of a character's name is…

(4) Case in point: there are at least 20 Felices.

Posted by Adrian Tchaikovsky on May 22nd, 2009

Posted in Blog, Home

Tags: gaming, Rants

7 Comments

7 comments to “World of Bugcraft ‑and- new story”

Tom Nagel, May 29th, 2009 at 3:14 pm:

I will admit to being the owner a (Blood Elf rogue) Tynisa. I take inspiration for names (ie. steal them) where I can. Larp is an especialy good source for semi-unique character names. Ergo I also have characters named Balurian, Mardocai, Cotonatli and Aestar.
Matthew Berry, June 23rd, 2009 at 12:14 pm:

Forgive the pedantry, but gander isnt rhyming slang, but it does mean 'to have a look'. It derives from the idea that ganders have a long neck, useful for looking around objects.
the cockney rhyming slang for 'to have a look' is to have a 'butcher's' as in 'Butcher's Hook'
Adrian Tchaikovsky, June 23rd, 2009 at 12:54 pm:

*Forgive*? Pedantry never needs forgiveness. I love it in all its forms. And now I am better informed than previously. Excellent, thank you.

You are absolutely sure, given the supposed origin of rhyming slang that it's not:
"gander and geese" = "keep a good watch out as there is a chance we may attract the attention of the police"?
Tynisa Walker, August 14th, 2009 at 6:30 am:

I was just wondering where you came up with the name for your character. See my given name is Tynisa and my mother got the name from a Major Harris song back in the 70's I believe. And seeing that a character has the same name as I do made me smile a little. I was wondering if you were inspired by the same song?
Adrian Tchaikovsky, August 16th, 2009 at 11:07 pm:

Actually, at work one day, several years back, I ended up speaking to someone called Tynisa (or some variant spelling thereof) at around the time I was planning Empire, and it stuck. To my knowledge it is a real name. It may be Indian/Pakistani by origin, in which case it might be Tyniser perhaps.
rhis, December 28th, 2010 at 5:22 am:

Just found this book series of yours last month. I tore though all 5 books- perhaps a little too quickly. Now I must wait. I don't normally bother with posting much… However, I was so captivated by your story and wonderful characters that I felt I should let you know that you may–yes, belatedly–add 1 pet wasp named Thalric to your wow list. I supposedly abhor all insects, though. So shh don't tell.

On a side note: I'm very impressed with how you've developed things. Even if you broke a part of my mind (in a good way) with two characters coming to… ah- lets call it "terms" in the latest book. Congrats. I think I'll hang around a while yet.
drag0nfly Falling, July 16th, 2012 at 6:40 pm:

Similarly, when I was trying to come up with a cool-sounding name to use as my PSN username, I decided to use 'Dragonfly Falling' but it was already taken. I settled for drag0nlyfly faIIing (on PSN capital I's look the same as lower case l's). There's probably alot of other Shadows of the Apt inspired usernames. Too bad there isn't a Shadows of the Apt PS3 game… 😉

Shadows of the Apt