On Excrucian Names (9)
On and on and on!
Earlier posts: (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8)
Till the world is gone!
So, we left things off at “fever.” You may notice that we’re going faster now; that’s because I covered all of the example names with the prefixes, meaning that the suffix entries fit on one line, and that discourages me from stopping to put a note after each one. ^_^
Let’s get to burning!
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FIRE -brand
FLOWERS -kai
FOREST -vid, -vida
GAME -hild, -hilda, -hilt, -ilda, -ildi
Notes
This was, of course, “victory/war,” before, but I shifted it to something that felt more in tune with being a strategist. Albeit somewhat tongue-in-cheek.
There were just too many war-words, and I wanted to facilitate things like “shell game.” ^_^
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GOOD -co; -gud; -mad, -maph, -math
Notes
-math as “good” was straight proto-Germanic, and it worked well enough, so I didn’t go outside that. I could have made “-maph” different, but I felt more like shoving it in under “good;” part of that is that it means that you’re very rarely going to say “this sounds best with -mad/-math but they both have sort of weird connotations in English, it weirds me out too much, I guess I have to go with -co or -gud or some other root!”
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GRAVE -stilla, -vald
Notes
At some point I noticed that -stilla, grave, and -stila, chalice, were awfully similar, and decided that that it’s some kind of weird poetic Excrucian thing.
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GREED -avi
GUARD -senta, -sontha, -suentha, -suintha, -suntha, -svintha, -swinth, -swintha, -swinthe, -swith
Notes
This is obviously incorrect; the proper meaning is closer to “strong.” But “guard” worked best with the prefixes!
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GUEST -gast, -gaster, -gastes; -bastus
HAT/HELM/MASK -elm
HONOR -rin, -rina, -ryna
Notes
I literally can’t see this without seeing that actor pretending to be Zuko in the Avatar Hamlet episode going, “Honor!!”
It gets me every time, just like using cumin in the kitchen gets The Killers’ “Human” playing in my head.
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Are we cumin
Or are we ancho
Are we cumin
Or are we ancho
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HOUSE -gard, -garde
JOY -uin/-win
JUSTICE -ce
Notes
Remember, kids! There’s no “I” in justice! [’s name root]
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KEEP -bur, -but, -buth; -bod
LIFE -an, -ana, -en, -enne, -ian, -iana, -ienne; -gaya, -geniya
LIGHT -de
LIKENESS -lec, -leik
LOCAL ARISTOCRACY -dau, -dav, -dava
Notes
This last root is actually the origin of the Creational Estate of Daves, through much the same mangled process that created bears. I don’t actually talk about this in Glitch; you’re the first to know!
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LOVE -bia, -leova, -leuva, -lieva, -liva, -live, -luva
MERCY -fredus, -frid, -fridia, -frida, -frithila, -fidil, -ph, -phrasia
MERRIMENT -ba, -bas, -bias, -bius
MONSTER -is
Notes
This came from my thinking about Eisarnis/Hisarnis, which properly meant “the iron one” as best as I could discover, and trying to figure out a suffix that let the name Hisarnis carry that same sense of indomitability without the suffix just meaning “one.”
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PASSAGE -hlid, -hlida, -hlith, -hlitha, -litha, -lithae
Notes
I may have already said, but I was really disappointed that I couldn’t make this “lid,” so that Iolithae was “eternal lid” or “keep a lid on her, seriously.” But it wasn’t really that functional, y’know, it would have meant names like “extreme lid,” “fight the lid,” “fickle lid,” “fast-moving lid,” “foreign lid” ...
I mean, those prefixes aren’t all great with “passage,” either, but they’re so much better!
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PEACE -sten, -stena, -stina
(λ-)PERSON -gotha, -gotho, -gothus, -goto
PLACE -nuan
Notes
Completely made up, long before I started doing my ridiculous approximation of linguistic “research.”
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PLAY -gisclus, -gisel, -gisklos
Notes
Another name element that I put a new meaning to by looking at the prefixes it went with. I just ... like, it used to be hostage. Who goes around naming their kid “fight-hostage?” “extreme hostage?” “ring-shaped hostage?” “fuzzy hostage?”
It’s also hard to get a name like that through acclamation, barring truly unfortunate circumstances.
... so I made a new meaning up!
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POWER -ker
PRIZE -gelda, -gelis, -gild, -gilda, -gildus
Notes
One consequence of the kind of haphazard way I’m doing this ... or, rather, I should say, the way that I opted not to spend five years on either research or development of the Excrucian language ... is that some of the suffix meanings drifted away from their obviously paired prefixes. Like, “Gild-” and “-gild” don’t quite track any longer: “valuing the worldly” and “prize.”
I wound up going back and fixing some of these later, but declaring others to be just, like, you know, language, funny old thing. Honestly, “language is a funny old thing” is my excuse for most of this; it doesn’t have to make sense, it just has to make a lot more sense than it would if I were just making stuff up from scratch.
But it may have wound up less regular than it ought to have been, in which case, I can only apologize and run away!
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RAVEN -hrabans, -hrams, -ram, -ravans
RIDER -rit; -sind, -sinda
Notes
I dragged “-sind” in here to join -rit because I decided I didn’t need a separate “traveler.” The word “Rider” has many additional connotations in context, but it really can’t help also giving the impression of someone riding around on a horse!
(I mean, unless it really tries? I don’t mean to just stuff words into boxes. Ganbatte, “Rider!” Fighto! You can mean disestablishmentarianism or eudaimonia if you just do your best!)
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SALVATION -nas
SEA -sius
Notes
So apparently there are seas in the Beyond! I didn’t actually know that before I started working on the name list. I made some stuff up about them later.
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SELF -sicus
SLAUGHTER -da, -do, -to, -tta, -tto
SOFTNESS -lind
SOUL -sael, -sila, -sula
SPEAR -gais, -gaisus, -ges, -gaith, -gaithus, -gesus, -geis, -geisus, -gid, -gidus, -gis, -gisus, -za; -gares
Notes
They really love their spears!
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SPLENDOR -vult
STAFF -rung
STRAIGHTAWAY -rago, -rax
STRATEGY -mod, -moda, -mond, -mud, -mund, -munds, -mut
STRENGTH -fortis; -trude
Notes
Sadly you can’t construct “Gertrude” with this system, although “Gudatrude” is pretty close.
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THUNDER -donia
TRIAD -trius, -terius
TRANSFORMATION -goia
TREASURE-HOUSE -ark, -arkos, -arkus; -archos
VALLEY -dela, -dila
VISION -red, -rev, -rid, -rida, -ridius, -ridus, -rith
VIZIER -dia, -té, -teus, -theus, -thia, -tius, -tis, -zia
Notes
This one used to be “servant,” but I saw a chance to reinforce theme and I grabbed it. ^_^
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VOID -nnia, -nia, -nya
WATCHFULNESS -acer, -vacar, -vara, -vera
WEAPONRY -sar
WELCOME -berg, -berga, -verga
WEST -stria
WOLF/HOUND -olf, -ulf, -wulf
Diminuitive/Nickname/Familiar
-ca, -ica, -ikas, -ka;
-ia, -ias, -ius, -ja, -ya;
-in;
-din;
-la, -las, -lash, -lios, -lla; -ely;
-lin, -line, -llino, -llinus, -lona;
-us, -dus
Notes
I had this bit at the bottom of my work file where suffixes that I really couldn’t do anything with, even with my extremely loose lookup standards, went. I sort of mentally sorted them into groups as I went, as you can see above. It wasn’t until a later draft that I actually worked out a bit about how the Ninuanni diminutives function. Of course, since English is the language of my primary audience, and isn’t one of those languages with an inherent and complex diminutive system (... I think, maybe I have familiarity-blinders), doing anything extensive here is probably a bit too much; ultimately, I assigned them all subtle connotations but also said, “Oh, by the way, just like you kind of have to ask a Russian if you want to know if a given diminutive works in Russian, you have to ask the players if a given diminutive works in Ninuanni; they’re the experts on what sounds right and what is just a laughable outsider’s attempt.”
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Possessive Case -im
Unknown/Unclear -pa, -pas
Notes
Yes, this does mean that if your name is Aupa, nobody knows what any of it means. Aupa Ninuanni Style!
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And that’s the list!
(I’ll repost the full version without comments separately.)
So, one would think that at this point things would be good. We now have a good list of meanings, and every name is sort of poetic, sort of, and at least a few of them have a genuine depth of meaning.
... but looking at it, back then, it all felt kind of flimsy. Kind of shallow.
Like, the Excrucians are dramatic, right? It felt like, they’d be all dramatically telling someone that their name means “war-welcome,” or whatever, and it ...
It just wasn’t extra enough.
I mean, my name is white-shadow pure/clear the great, or possibly Heaven pure/clear the Great, or “the Great Pure Heaven,” a name meaning a lot more dramatic than “war-welcome,” I’ll tell you that, and that’s just five minutes on google.
For an Earth name, frankly, that is as ordinary as dry toast.
So ...
I mean, yeah, I figured, players would like this, and I certainly wasn’t going to throw away the work to this point, I was keeping it, but I wasn’t satisfied, it was ultimately just a mix-and-match roleplaying system.
I wanted something more like ...
Like ...
Like that thing that makes fanfiction writers so obsessed with Emiya saying “I am the bone of my sword.”
(Besides arguable Freudian interpretations.)
I wanted Excrucian names and their meanings to be genuinely over the top, genuinely powerful in the right contexts and genuinely ridiculous in the wrong ones.
I wanted them to be poetry.
So that’s where I went next.
To something more like:
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ARMY [(THE) ARMY’S]
“A thousand voices shout my name, a thousand horses stomp their feet, a gory weapon in my hand:”
Name elements: Ar-, Arg-, Har-, Harja-
Common Names: Argaith, army’s spear; Ariaric, army’s commander; Arimir, army’s fever; Ariana, army’s life; Harumaph, army’s good.
Arimir (Example)
A thousand voices shout my name, a thousand horses stomp their feet, a gory weapon in my hand: hot blood pounding, dizzy heat, a feverish delirium ...
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This was going to be, as it turned out, rather a lot of work, because the prefixes and the suffixes all had to match.
I didn’t get it perfect, I think, because that’s a lot to ask. I carried around a bunch of the suffix poems in my head and tried them against each prefix as I worked, and did a bunch of cross-comparison when I can, but some of them will still probably land leaden.
Still, that’s what we’re going to be talking about next. ^_^
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The Key That You Must Master to Indoor Planting
Growing your own cannabis can be a great and fulfilling venture, but there are certain struggles that people encounter if they’re not prepared enough. But worry not, all the headaches and wasted material can be prevented with some preparation and well selected information. It`s all goes down to being prepared, putting in some effort and laying down the foundations for a hassle free growing process.
Below are several key points.
1. PICK THE RIGHT POT
When growing weed on a balcony or terrace, you'll be growing them in some kind of pot or container. It depends a bit on your preferences and skills as a grower, but all you really need is a standard flower pot with drainage holes and a saucer to catch any excess water.
Far more important than the type of container, is the size of said container. After all, the size of the pot will directly impact the size of your plants.
2. Make Sure You’re Watering The Right Amount
If you’ve ever worked with HID lights before, you understand how much water plants require beneath them.
This is because HID lights are mostly infrared, which greatly reduces the moisture content of your plants. Infrared is harsh, and it can dry out your leaves and harden your soil.
Since LED lights are only partially infrared balanced with other waves of light, the concentration isn’t enough to dehydrate your plants.
This means that watering LED-lit plants the same way you would water HID lit plants could potentially be drowning them. Always check your moisture levels before you water.
3. Beware of the Pests
Bugs and pests, like the most-common spider mites, can be a serious hazard to your crop. Cannabis plants can easily be infected with several types of bugs that can be fatal for the whole crop. Bugs, pests, spider mites, can come to your indoor garden if you take clones from other growers or dispensary, or from a soil that is already infected. Also, having more people working in your indoor garden can result in contamination with pests.
4. Get Your pH Right
So many problems experienced by beginners can be traced back to incorrect pH levels. Especially as what look a lot like nutrient deficiencies often aren’t deficiencies at all—they’re pH problems—and they can be made even worse by adding more nutes!
It stands for potential Hydrogen and is a measurement of acidity and alkalinity. The measurement scale runs from 0 to 14. Neutral pH is 7, less than 7 is acidic, higher than 7 is alkaline.
5. Humidity and Water System Management
Humidity is the amount of water moisture in the air. You need the right amount of moisture in the garden for the growth process. Too much moisture will cause mold and fungus growth in the buds. Too little humidity, on the other hand, will cause your cannabis plants to go dry.
6. Maintain a healthy root zone
Unfortunately, it’s often difficult to discern whether plant pathology is a result of root-zone failures or nutrient problems, Morelli says, so getting ahead of any problems is key. If the root zone fails, the plant stops functioning and will produce a “dismal crop of mediocre flower at best,” Morelli says.
If you want great bud, you have to provide plenty of light! When you start a grow with good genetics – from good seeds or clones – your plant has the potential for a high level of quality (yields, potency, resilience). However, it’s nearly impossible to get your buds to reach that potential if you use cannabis grow lights that are underpowered.
Powerful grow lights like HPS, LECs or full spectrum LED grow lights produce the biggest and most dense buds
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